Farida Batool, Tazeen Qayyum, and Adeela Suleman "Three Female Contemporary Artists From Pakistan"
Aicon Gallery
This event has ended.
Aicon Gallery New York presents three female Pakistani artists, Farida Batool, Tazeen Qayyum, and Adeela Suleman, in its recently relocated space on 35 Great Jones Street. During a time of great political upheaval for the country, the three women’s artistic practices speak to the role of women, the tumultuous recent history, and the contemporary view of the nation and its inhabitants in the eyes of the West.
Farida Batool has created a series of lenticular prints to encapsulate a series of brief narratives. Batool prefers the medium to that of video, as the lenticular print allows the viewer to meditate upon a frozen series of moments within a single event, stop at any moment, and review again instantly. Her print Nai Reesan Shehr Lahore Diyan (There is no Match of the City Lahore) reflects upon a series of arsons committed by a mob of religious extremists in response to the 2005 Jylllands-Posten Muhammad cartoon controversy. Through the animation, Batool weighs the evils of both Eastern and Western extremism and finds the greater evil is difficult to identify.
Tazeen Qayyum, in Do not Inhale and Test on a Small Area Before Use, has employed the methods of an entomologist to display paint insects with a traditional miniature technique. Qayyum then pins labels around the paintings with facts and myths regarding the hated household pests, pesticide warnings, and facts relating to war, to draw a parallel between the practices of archiving and the language of political propaganda.
Adeela Suleman assembles found household hardware into forms that range in resemblance from strange microorganisms to internal organs and sections of the human body. Crafted from items such as drain covers, nails, showerheads, and fasteners, the finished artworks have a surprisingly delicate quality despite their stainless steel construction. While the domestic origins of her materials may provoke the viewer to label her work as feminist in its intent, Suleman prefers instead to view her works as sketches in three-dimensional form realized through the potential of combining these disparate elements.
[Image: Farida Batool "Nai Reesan Shehr Lahore Diyan" (2006) Lenticular print, 34 x 48 in. Edition 5/7]
Media
Schedule
from December 11, 2008 to January 04, 2009
Opening Reception on 2008-12-11 from 18:00 to 20:00