Artist Statement
Artist Statement
As I look deeper into my art practice, I find myself reevaluating and decontextualizing my work both technically and conceptually, within the context of contemporary art. My former training in Pakistan mainly focused on traditional art forms and methods. I am embracing my training and skills while also questioning them.
My work is not only about the marriage of eastern and western art philosophies, but also about the amalgamation of eastern and western culture and values. It is inspired by the aesthetic of traditional fabric making and classical miniature paintings, I am embracing these traditional arts from a cultural perspective while expanding them to produce contemporary work. My appreciation for fabric-making developed during my childhood. I first discovered fabric making as a powerful artistic metaphor, while watching my mother sewing and knitting. Over the years, this fascination continued to grow and developed into an important aspect of my creative practice. My life experiences continue to influence my work but the focus on the aesthetic of fabric-making remains. Most of my work incorporate the images of textile, either fabric or thread. For me, fabric and thread have a very female connotation and I have found them to be a perfect symbol for my self-expression. These domestic skills have been passed through generations of women. Using such imagery, I express ideas about myself as a woman in both social and cultural settings.
Though classical miniature paintings, a form of Pakistani art, have been a part of my artistic training for several years, conceptually I explore contemporary ideas and thoughts instead of traditional ones. The themes on which I am working are derived from personal experiences and are relevant to the present time. Having been trained as a traditional miniature artist, my work also deals with notions of perfection and beauty.