In the frozen burial chambers of Mongolia’s Altai Mountains, felt has survived longer than memory. Preserved in ice for over 2,000 years, the Pazyryk burials revealed wool hangings, animal forms and garments of striking detail. These objects show that felting was not only a practical craft but also part of ritual and status. It carried meaning, skill and care.

In Chitral, wool felting was practised for generations, though it was not originally native to the region. It came from a wider nomadic Central Asian tradition, carried through movement and exchange, and gradually became part of local craft practices. Closely tied to pastoral life, where herding animals and working with wool were part of everyday living, felting was often a communal activity, used in making rugs, garments and household items shaped by the needs of the landscape and climate.

In ‘What the Mountains Hide’, Tahir Zaman brings this history into the present, but not as a continuous or secure tradition. Instead, the exhibition reflects on an endangered practice that is now almost non-existent and no longer actively practised in Chitral. The decline of pastoral life, along with broader global shifts, industrialisation and changing lifestyles, has reduced the need for handmade felt objects. As people move toward urban areas and different forms of work, the skills and knowledge tied to felting are becoming harder to sustain.

The exhibition was presented as part of the Vasl Artists’ Association’s ‘Museum of the Unseen’ series. The series explores the intangible, the hidden and the often overlooked aspects of human experience and the world around us, asking artists to engage with ideas that are difficult to represent.

An exhibition centred on the craft of wool-felting weaves together narratives of memory, material, tradition and loss

The exhibition consists of 13 wool-felted wall-hangings and two videos. Each wall-hanging differs in form and composition, yet they share a limited palette of hazel brown, white and grey. This restraint creates unity, while allowing each piece to maintain its own presence.

Works such as Dance of the Clouds, Songs of the Winds, The Moon and The Sun suggest a connection to natural rhythms and elements, even when the forms remain abstract. The repetition of these tones draws attention to the material itself. Wool is not treated as a surface to decorate but as something that already carries meaning.

The wall-hangings feel grounded in the landscape they come from. The browns suggest soil and rock, the whites recall snow and light, and the greys sit somewhere in between, like shadows or shifting weather. Together, these colours reflect the mountain valleys of Chitral, their skies, and their changing light. Each work carries a sense of place, even when it does not directly represent it.

There is a strong sense of touch in the works. Felt is dense, soft, and layered, and its surfaces hold marks of process. They show pressing, shaping and time spent with the material. This physical quality connects the works to the labour behind them and highlights the effort required to make each piece, standing in contrast to faster, machine-based production.

The two videos, a short film and a contemplative sequence, expand on the wool-felting process and show that felting is a lived practice, where knowledge is passed down through generations. At the same time, the exhibition holds a sense of loss. It does not present felting as something stable or secure but points to its fragile position today. As fewer people continue the craft, the knowledge around it becomes harder to sustain. The exhibition embeds this sense of loss within the material and the process.

In this way, ‘What the Mountains Hide’ moves between past and present, linking the ancient felt objects of the Altai region to present-day Chitral, while revealing the distance between them. It asks what it means for a craft to disappear and, in doing so, points to the fading of a slower way of living, shaped by time, skilled labour and close attention to material and environment.

‘What the Mountains Hide’ was on display at the Vasl Gallery, Karachi from March 24-April 3, 2026

The writer is a university student with an interest in urban history, culture and public spaces. He can be contacted at pakistaniumer04@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, May 3rd, 2026