2007-ongoing
The figurative works between 1987 - 2009 developed out of an intensive training in drawing and a desire to think about the body in all its emotive selves; its anatomy, historic narrative and allegorical representation.
The early drawings examined ideas around the physicality of the body, its form, but also its subjectivity.
It’s important to consider the cultural context in which the figurative works were produced. There are three points of reference that are important to the artist; drawing practice, literary and discursive texts and walking/observing the city. The large-format drawings (Exhale (2004), Bare the fact Bear the fact (2006), Heavenly Ornaments (2005-2007) link to discursive and literary influences, which later inform the amour sculpture works.
During this time, experiments began with traditional and non-traditional materials, including site-specific installations with henna pigment and body-objects constructed with latex, wire, metal sheet and fabric.
Heavenly Ornaments بہشتی زیور
These objects explore the idea of clothing as an extension of the emotional content of the body; lingerie, amour, straight jackets and other imagined pieces of attire create multiple identities or personae and a mutability of meaning. In these works there is also a witnessing of violence against women in news items and local press.
Finally, the physical experience of walking has underpinned the conception of much of this work. Walking and observing the city becomes an intervention into the public space, and a way to reclaim that space through female subjectivity. The act of walking also becomes a critique of the gender divided and ethnically fractured streets of Karachi between the two decades of 1990 and 2010.
Robe 2009
Galvanised steel and leather
100 x 42 x 60 cmBlue Spine, 2023 Galvanised steel and leather 72 x 34 x 18 cm
Body-bullet, 2008 Galvanised steel 54 x 36 x 27 cm
Bound-less, 2000 Charcoal on paper 100 x 70 cm
war-d-ROBE I, 2009 Charcoal on paper 71 x 100 cm
Armour suit for Rani of Jhansi, 2008 / 2017 Galvanised steel, feathers and leather 90 x 45 x 35 cm
New Clothes for the Emperor I–VI, 2016 Digital prints on archival paper Each 84 x 57 cm
The Wardrobe, 2008 Charcoal, Conté and acrylic on Fabriano paper 150 x 122 cm
Heavenly Ornaments I & II, 2005 Charcoal, Conté and acrylic on Fabriano paper. 275 x 153 cm