Saba Khan's Mangla Dam exhibition enters final weekend at Birmingham's MAC

The Midlands Arts Centre (MAC) in Birmingham, United Kingdom, announced its final weekend of London-based Pakistani artist Saba Khan’s Riverless Water. The exhibition is grounded in South Asian water histories and an exploration of migration and displacement following the construction of the Mangla Dam in the 1960s.

Khan examines the human and environmental consequences of the Mangla Dam in Azad Kashmir, a project that triggered one of the largest migrations from Pakistan to the UK following its construction on the River Jhelum. The event has had a lasting impact on communities in Pakistan and Britain, particularly in the Midlands.

The exhibition notes that its 12 paintings, alongside archival material, video interviews, and drawings, trace historical moments surrounding the dam’s construction, which “led to the mass migration of people from Mirpur, Pakistan, to Birmingham.”

Beyond the dam, the exhibition delves into textile mills, factories, and the legacy of British colonialism in the post-partition era of Pakistan and India.

The British government was one of the project’s international guarantors, the MAC wrote in a post on Facebook, adding that migrant status formed part of the settlement offered to local communities. "Today, around 70% of Britain’s Pakistani community originates from the Dadyal and Mirpur area affected by the dam," the arts centre noted.

Khan noted, “the early migration trends included men engaged in temporary factory work at employment sites such as the Longbridge car factory in Birmingham.”

Her work stands as a powerful and distinctive visual exploration of Pakistan's history and its diasporic communities.

Khan debuted her first solo exhibition in the UK this January and her current show is set to close on April 6 at the MAC.