NYAB Event - Ayesha Durrani "Pieces"

Ayesha Durrani "Pieces"

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Ayesha Durrani's work is a reflection of her traditional upbringing in Peshawar. Her images of tailors' dress forms speak to the limitations placed upon women's independence in various traditional, patriarchal societies throughout the Middle East and South Asia. Durrani's faceless mannequins, presented in varying, often-disparate contexts, are examples of the irony that even when women seek to outwardly exhibit their individuality through superficial adornments, they remain constrained within the boundaries and standards their particular society has set for them. In a broader sense, although the varying colors of the dress forms and the shifting environments in which they're placed can be seen as representing differing personalities and emotional contexts, the mannequin, as an "ideal" form, remains a cultural standardization of "womanhood" recognized in the majority of modern societies. That is to say that while ideals of femininity may vary amongst cultures, the fact that some version of an "acceptable" ideal does exist remains a societal constant.

In her latest works, Durrani delves deeper into the psyche of repressed women by using hearts as a recurring motif. Although her hearts are portrayed as literal images of the organ itself, the artist stresses that the heart is "more than a muscle that pumps blood through the body," but rather a conduit of the feelings and emotions that all women experience. In these works, hearts are depicted as broken to symbolize pain and loss, golden to symbolize selflessness and generosity, and a grouping of stone hearts symbolizes the collective stoicism that women must exude in any traditional, conformist society.

In a statement from the artist:

"They say a woman's heart is like an ocean, the depth of which cannot be measured, and that it carries as many secrets! In my new work I have tried to look inside a woman's heart and soul, trying to measure that depth. In most societies, girls are brought up to fulfill very specific roles. They are trained to sacrifice their happiness and needs in order to make others happy. It is this concept of self sacrifice that I have tried to portray, and the price of that sacrifice that women pay. Women are supposed to think with their hearts and not with their heads, at least that's what we are told! This is also probably why women are not taken seriously; why people hesitate to give them positions of power and importance. In my paintings I have shown the heart as more than a muscle that pumps blood through the body."

[Image: Ayesha Durrani "KEEP THE HEART IN LINE" (2009) Gouache on wasli, 13.5 x 19.5 in.]