Overview

Departing from a space of personal loss and collective grief, Fazal Rivzi’s two-part publication project Kissing of The threshold آستان بوس (2024) centres Shia traditions of mourning and remembrance. In this artist book, Rizvi foregrounds the relations of care that guide the passage from grief to memorialisation, evoking the knowledge of Ghusaals in Pakistan, who tend to the bodies of those who have died and perform ghusl [washing] as part of the final rites. Through calligraphy and performative photographs, the publication gestures to water as a primal source from birth to death and indicates its remedial qualities entangled in both cleansing and healing.