The core themes of her work - femininity, sexuality and physicality-explored with an underlying juxtaposition of where it borders, and perhaps even clashes on social boundaries, have evolved to include other metaphors; worm-like creatures surrounding and sometimes coming out of the mouths and bodies of figures, Medieval chastity belts, and perhaps the more obscure Sieve series. The more recent works in the current show, Exhale, seem to be set in a landscape; a landscape of the body, its emotional confines and physical limitations and yearnings.

Because the work has evolved over several years in which the artist worked and exhibited in several sites, the chronology of the works inform a narrative, though not a linear one. The main theme divides and creates layers of sub themes, informing and enriching the work. The fluid and transient quality of the marks and drawings, on contemplation, expand to reach a collapse of senses, in turn giving way for the narrative to collapse on itself. While this is a technique most successfully explored by writers like Paul Auster, Naiza seems to stretch the medium of drawing to a place where the work necessitates the need to stretch our capacities for emotion and feeling. Not only to make sense of the work but, also to engage in and reaffirm our subjective sensibilities as the most reliable guide to the conditions of our existence.

Extract from Exhale catalogue by Mahmud Waheed, 2004.

To read the full essay click here

EXHALE