Written by: Nayha Jehangir Khan
Posted on: September 12, 2022 | 
| 中文
Shameen Arshad
The autobiographical nature of Shameen Arshad’s solo presentation examines identity politics, cultural history and transience of life through a collection of tapestries using unconventional textile-based visualisations. The act of embroidery is deeply rooted in the indigenous and its eventual industrialisation through history. Its evolution was marked in South Asia through colonization, where the artist is anchoring a series of pivotal life experiences as an ideological reclamation that has dominated her sense of self. She is able to travel between the collective history of being Pakistani and a highly personal present, which is defined through a collection of cultural signifiers seen here as mapping an individualised homeland.
The installation at VM Art Gallery
The drafting of threadwork is meticulously done on rich & luxurious velvet fabric in various colours, with an alluring sheen under the gallery spotlight. On encountering these visually immersive installations, the viewer begins to trace the artist's individualised symbolism that she has woven into the fabric through traditional techniques of applique and stitching, grounded in her topographical lineage belonging to this region. Hailing from Islamabad, “Intersection” is a re-imagination of her home city seen as a sprawling expansive stretch of land layered with journalistic glossary taken from her life. The viewer travels through these pathways collecting subtle notes left, such as a graduate hat, a royal crown and a location pin icon. In “Four walls and a closed door”, she creates a flag spread with cutouts of buildings where the focus is on home as a concept, and not merely as a physical space. A combination of whimsy and playfulness can be seen in the world as the artist pieces together her own interpretation of belonging.
Intersection
The tin foil paper immediately catches the eye in “Perceptual Landscapes”, as a mighty canal divides the composition resembling the Indus River. The shifting terrain depicted in the piece feels chaotic with infinitely interconnected lines recalling electrical circuitry that feels futuristic and dystopian. Her interest in capturing the disruptive rupturing of the ancient naturalistic order of the river, is an analogy to the effects of colonialism and cultural imperialism that have directly shaped generations of Pakistanis including herself. There are multiple warplanes flying in multiple directions of dotted lines, creating hypnotic oscillations entirely woven into “Limbo”, looming over a series of static buildings threatening the peace. Feelings of dread and anxiety are embedded into the work where the calm in the lower half of the composition could be destroyed at any moment.
Perceptual Landscapes
The artist creates a hypnotic subconscious terrain in “The Eternal Blues”, where the top half is darker with taller ships and a higher mast approaching the land with uninhabited tents lined at the corner. The lower half of the piece shows six smaller boats referencing handmade paper boats from the artist's memory as a child. She uses these playful boats as a symbol of freedom, transforming their innocence into anxiety and a need for escape. The narrative here is multilayered and read through a historical showcasing of the invasion of graphical terrain by foreign elements. The minimal cutout shapes have a heavy relief effect on the velvet fabric where their weight is textual and psychological to the viewer. Using the shape of a house repeated in “Close to Home”, has a presence that is dominating and hard to look away from. The white simple shape of the house is paired with an intricately woven section where the artist shows two compasses setting off a series of ships in various directions. The artist reconciles her conflicting sense of displacement with the rigid geometry of the symbolised house.
The Eternal Blues
Shameen understands the distortion of identity caused through generations of internalized colonisation, she shares these reflective observations through “The Maneater’s Victim”. In this painting, silhouettes of characters are exposing the inherently skewed exoticism of South Asian culture visible in appliqued pieces of a lady in an English gown carrying a parasol, men carrying shotguns, regal feasting and slavery. This piece was created after an encounter the artist had that highlighted the inferiority complexes cemented into our collective self as Pakistanis, with an obsession with fair complexion and rejection of the true self. The artist’s reflective journey using typography, photography, linework and textiles deconstructs complex intersectional conflicts that have resulted from assimilation and alienation caused through language, culture and history. The exhibition continues till 27th September 2022 at VM Art Gallery.
The Maneater’s Victim
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