The research in my art practice has always questioned the social issues in my surroundings. The criteria, setting the standards of good and bad!
It is about the pressures and anxieties I have, as a woman in this culture.
It is about the dreams of a spouse who awaits the happiness in life.
It is about expressing one’s own feelings.
The work is deeply rooted in the traditions of South Asian culture and it has stories that suggest personal concerns within a larger context. I am keen to continue this investigation further and plan to explore the new dimensions of concept, imagery, and materials specific to this genre.
I graduated from the National College of Arts, Lahore Pakistan, specializing in style of South Asian miniature painting. This genre has a deep rooted history starting from China to Persia, reaching its zenith during the times of Mughals in South Asia. This traditional art practice took a major shift as a style called “Neo-Miniature” art in Pakistan during the 1990’s and combines the Eastern/Islamic traditions of art and craft with the Western contemporary art language.
In my practice, I have been constantly challenging the boundaries of the traditional practice by demonstrating a contemporary approach, experimenting with scale, medium and material, informed by the myth and metaphors from my everyday life. Working within the language of minimalism, I am currently investigating the ideas of conceptual discourse in miniature painting and its symbolism from exotic to contemporary. To me the resulting artworks and an in-depth knowledge will create a model to predict, critique and understand this genre within the contemporary discourse of International art scene.
Over the course of my practice I have used variety of metaphors that were present in my surroundings. I had taken objects like dowry trunk, motives from stitch craft, embroidery and local pottery. I have used them to make narratives related to social issues redirected towards myself as a female artist. My major concern is to highlight the undertones of contradictions in mentality and behavior amongst opposite gender in South Asian culture. Besides contemporary miniature painting I also delve into the medium of sculpture, installation, video and sound art using the sensibilities of my formal school of thought.