Creative Capital

Naeem Mohaiemen

Naeem Mohaiemen works in Dhaka and New York, using essays, photography and film to explore histories of failed utopias. Earlier projects have also looked at militarization, surveillance, hyphenated citizenship, border partitions and architectural nationalism. His essays include “Islamic Roots of HipHop” (Sound Unbound, MIT Press), “Ad Man Blues” (Indian Highway, Serpentine Gallery), “Why Mahmud can’t be a pilot” (Nobody Passes, Seal) and “Beirut, Silver Porsche Illusion” (Men of Global South, Zed).

Project themes have been described as “how to make engagements with a revolutionary past meaningful in the sudden eruption of a revolutionary present” (Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, Bidoun), “gently questioning the efficacy of activism” (Brian Boucher, Art in America) and “not yet disillusioned fully with the capacity of human society” (Vijay Prashad, Take on Art). The work has been featured in Granta, Rethinking Marxism, Modern Painters and Springerin. Art Review selected the current project for the “Future Greats 2012” list.