Written by: Shameen Arshad
Posted on: April 10, 2020 | 
| 中文
A Painting by Maryam Arsalan
“P.S: I love Painting” – read a little note at the end of Maryam Arslan’s artist statement. She reiterates this sentiment in the brief conversation I had with her about her work. She loves to paint and loves to eat. “Not cook though”, she quickly adds.
Ironically, it is the slow, painstaking task of creating her scrumptious cupcakes and ice cream on a canvas that is fundamental to her practice. Just because it can’t be consumed, doesn’t mean it cannot be classified as culinary art. Even the paint is applied using cake decorating techniques such as piping.
Maryam Arslan is a Karachi based visual artist and an art educator with a Bachelor in Fine Arts from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS) (2015), and an MA in Art and Design Studies at the Beaconhouse National University (BNU), Lahore (2017). Arslan has displayed her work locally as well as internationally since 2012. These include “Sweeping back the sea” at Aicon Gallery, New York (2018), “Alternate Constructs”, O Art Space, Lahore (2019), “Escape: The Art Collection at Chawkandi Gallery, Karachi (2019), and “Sensory Perceptions” at Full Circle Gallery, Karachi (2020). She was also selected for the Taaza Tareen Residency hosted by Vasl Artists’ Association in 2018.
Arslan with Her Paintings
Her work isn’t just a cross between painting and sculpture, but makes connections amongst disparate mediums, methods and techniques. It’s not often that you look at a work of art in a gallery space and instantly think about the last piece of uneaten pie lying in your fridge. Arslan’s work is testament to her two loves, as she finds a middle ground to cater to both. Her meals are good enough to excite the viewer, but don’t fill the stomach.
In the Process of Painting
Arslan claims that she started out like many artists, with conventional still life and portraits, sticking to the basics before finding her niche. Eventually painting figures lost its appeal, and she moved on to her current practice of creating quirky images during her time at the BNU. Her current techniques include alla prima, pouring, impasto, blocking-in, spattering, and sculpting with paint. The need to experiment is a very instrumental part of Arslan’s practice, as she employs a variety of mediums, from oil-based painting, to zinc powder and modelling paste.
When asked about her inspiration, Wes Anderson’s work is at the top of her list. The creator of “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and his luscious colour palette, holds great fascination for her. This is evident in her rich, vibrant and over accentuated colours, much too fantastical for this world. By implementing a similar, somewhat bizarre colour palette, she reveals the food as more than just a key to survival, but rather an entire experience. Like Anderson, who uses colour to emphasize the nature of his characters, Maryam depicts the rather dreamlike, joyous state that she experiences when feasting on a cake.
An Image of a Tart
There is a sensory engagement of colour which recreates the joy of culinary excellence. Her work evokes the feeling of salivating when you see a scrumptious meal, and how it feels all the way down your throat. As a spectator, we tend to be very responsive to the senses that her palette appeals to, almost forgetting for a second that it is not edible.
She, like Anderson, exaggerates the palette to make the paintings more memorable. Another of her inspirations, who masterfully used colour, is Quddus Mirza. Mirza’s uninhibited gestural marks and pure, childlike imagery seems to be reflected in Arslan’s own aesthetic.
Not only is she laid-back, but also has a romantic approach to art-making, a temperamental artist but without the mood swings. She further goes on to comment how her palette swiftly changes with her mood and surroundings, “My painting preference changes according to the weather.”
An Image of a Cup of Tea
She claims everything around her affects her painting, so much so, that when she’s cooking, she observes the ingredients and the array of colours that go into the mix.
In another interpretation, the artist’s work can play the same role as Warhol’s “Campbell’s Tomato Soup”, to mock the snobbery and elitism of the art world. There may be critics who turn up their noses at the simplicity of her artwork. However, it is refreshing to see an artist simply say, “Hey, I just love to paint”, without having to attach a plethora of references and research to justify one’s creation. A work of art can simply be the product of an urge to create.
An Image of a Banana
Arslan’s work is a celebration of so many things: paint as a medium, vibrant colour and the edible delicacies themselves. It pushes the boundaries of what can be done with paint, and texture. She manages to play with them in a way that ignites a multitude of feelings. As a practicing artist myself, I feel a strong conceptual basis to work is of the utmost importance. However, Arslan’s work does provide the much-needed childlike infatuation in a deeply troubled world, the feeling of being a child in a candy store.
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