Muzzumil Ruheel

Born in 1985 in Lahore (Pakistan)
Lives and works in Karachi (Pakistan)

Muzzumil Ruheel graduated in 2009 as a visual artist from the Beacon House National University, Lahore. His work has been shown at Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai, UAE; Wip Konshtall, Stockholm, Sweden; “Still Exotic,” Collaborative Project, Cairo Documenta, Egypt; “Space Invader,” Aicon Gallery, London, UK; Grey Noise, Bastakiya Art Fair, Dubai, UAE; “Through Other Eyes,” Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Herbert Art Gallery, Coventry and The Glynn Vivian Gallery, Swansea, Wales, UK; “Parallel Lines,” Cartwright Hall, Bradford City Art Gallery and Museum, UK; “Media as Medium,” UDK, Berlin, Germany and elsewhere. His work is part of several national and international collections.

Muzzumil Ruheel has created a work for KB17 involving a blackboard and text. He writes: “‘History Class’ is a compilation of extracts of my interactions as I fictionally live through history and its literature. I live somewhere within the history I read and I witness those documented events through my stories as a writer. I place myself within the different chapters of the past and I get to interact with all the major characters through the ages, back and forth, irrespective of a timeline. I live their truths, their realities and I realize the lies and contradictions through my fiction. Every account presented by history has multitudes of perspectives and what one sees or remembers is that which has been given importance and documentation while a lot of the small details are overlooked. My narrative is about that undocumented time, the stories and images before and after those documented narratives. One session in a history classroom has so much more to tell; there are so many stories and so many perspectives missing. If one were to try to justify this theory, there wouldn’t be enough time and space; the incessant flow of information would blacken pages, text over text over text, resembling a blackboard. The ambiguity in meaning is complemented by the darkness of ink and the text that hides in plain view and shines unexpectedly. The piece also includes the blackboard’s shadow made from shredded paper on the floor.”