“I Am Neem” was a durational performance piece commissioned for Aaj aur Kal, an exhibition of performance, new media, and installation at the Gulgee Museum in Karachi, Pakistan, on Friday, 13 February 2026, curated by Amin Gulgee and Noor Ahmed.
The artwork I created grew out of absorbing stories from the past. As a recipient of all the labour that came before me, I wanted to create a space of rest, a space post struggle, where the body could finally exhale. From this need was born ‘I am Neem’: a performance exploring the visceral embodiment of unpalatability and healing, the reclamation, and surrender of oneself. The neem leaf is traditionally known for its medicinal properties, but famously bitter to taste. Not everything that tries to heal is easy to digest. So too is the tradition of enacting change within a misogynistic ecosystem.
In my performance, the properties of local spices were heated, activated, and embodied, reclaiming a charged space of healing rooted in communal knowledge, intuition, and nature. I worked with neem leaves, turmeric, and basil seeds as material and metaphor. These spices are often used in South Asian traditions as herbal medicine to soothe throats, aid digestion, calm the nervous system, and build immunity. I performed under the shadow of a freestanding door, a faux buffer between the private and the public.
On a bed of rose petals, I sat with my spices around me. I heated basil seeds over a flame and wrapped them into small cloth bundles, which were pressed against my body as a compress to alleviate muscle pain. I crushed dried neem leaves, lubricated them with apricot oil, and covered myself with the mixture. I ground turmeric roots, mixed them with oil, and applied it to key areas of my body. The actions were like a ritual created for myself that allowed me to check in with my body, it was a way of connecting with the earth, trusting it, and giving it all the emotional weight. This artwork for me was about being raw, messy, undone. In a world that normalises so much wounding, healing is an act of resistance.
Photography credits: Mehran Qureshi