Celebrating 10 Years of the Visual Artist Fellowship

Imran Channa

Looking back, how did your time as a Visiting Artist Fellow shape your artistic practice or career?

My fellowship at Harvard profoundly expanded my artistic and intellectual framework. The time felt very short to fully immerse myself in the vast knowledge, physical spaces, and intellectual resources available there. It shifted the way I approach research and artistic inquiry. Although there was so much to explore, I am grateful to have been part of the program and to have gathered valuable research materials that continue to inform my practice. The impact of these resources, along with a clearer sense of direction, can be seen in my current research projects.

Were there any specific experiences, people, or opportunities during the fellowship that had a lasting impact on you?

Almost every moment felt significant. Walking across different campuses, engaging with faculty, staff, students, and researchers helped me connect my practice to broader academic conversations. Attending seminars throughout Harvard and exploring rare archival materials in the libraries gave me a deeper understanding of how knowledge and history are constructed. These experiences helped me navigate my artistic research more deeply within academia, especially in relation to my interests in colonialism in South Asia and beyond.

How has your work evolved since your fellowship at Harvard? What are you currently working on or excited about in your practice?

I have been investigating the Partition archive, particularly the Life Magazine photographs captured by Margaret Bourke-White. During my fellowship, I had the opportunity to speak with several PhD scholars whose specialization in Partition studies opened new intellectual perspectives for me. Currently, I am working on themes related to the politics of land and landscape, viewed through the histories of colonialism, displacement, and technology.

Whose work is inspiring you right now, and why?

I continue to draw inspiration from thinkers who challenge systems of knowledge. Many writers and philosophers influence me, especially Homi K. Bhabha, Giorgio Agamben, Michel Foucault, Jorge Luis Borges, and Donna Haraway. Their work expands my understanding of power, history, and the construction of truth. These ideas continually fuel my artistic practice, each influencing different aspects of my research and critical thinking.

Share one image that captures something meaningful about your practice today. This could be a recent artwork, a studio moment, or you at work.

“Enchanted Land” consists of landscapes that don’t exist yet feel familiar: serene mountains, cascading waterfalls, visions and land promised by politics and faith alike. The idea of a perfect homeland, a paradise, is often a fantasy forged in the crucible of violence. I feed this fantasy to the machine, asking artificial intelligence to generate visions of heaven: idyllic, lush, and uninhabited. Later, by repainting them with gouache,

I reinsert the human hand, blurring the line between machine-made beauty and emotional presence. Each work is accompanied by Morse code statements proclaiming a homeland shaped by religious, political, and moral purity.

Explore more of the artist’s work here