Normally during a domestic fight, the new function of household items is discovered. Often the utensils for cooking, storing and serving food are used for hitting the spouse or to get protec­tion from the onslaught of one's better [but bitter at that moment!! half. However these utensils are not widely used as weapons, since these are picked as the irrefutable argument at the last stage of conflict.

Yet Adeela Suleman, in a peaceful manner, has found some other utility of these ordinary items, which are in every kitchen and house in this society. Adeela has a considerable association with these objects, because in her previous body of works, the pots and pans were transformed into beautiful and strange pieces, which were part of her installations that dealt with the idea of appropriating the popular culture.

It is obvious that Suleman, like many of her contemporaries, is also assimilating popular urban culture in her art, but her specific strategy separates her from a number of other 'users'. In fact, more than the strategy, it is her position - of being an insider - that saves her from being enticed into the fashion and fantasy of lower art/culture or turning into a feminist, politically motivated artist and the exploiter of post modernity. Actually her work, due to its openness of possibility cannot be classified into one movement or style. It constitutes an insider's response to the life and art around him/her.

The two elements, life and art, have been blended in a seamless manner in her sculptures and installations. In the past, Adeela created works around the objects that are mainly used by women, and she converted these into other functional objects - after a long process of altering their appearance with the help of paint, soft fabric and popular designs. All of those works retained a link with a woman's view of the world around her.

The recent work of Suleman seems to be moving beyond the boundaries of gender, even though it is all about male and female experiences/physiques. These sculpture pieces, single or combined, are derived from the fittings in the houses, especially from the bathrooms. She has selected the drain covers, shower pipes, water pipes and other such objects to build works, that - still remaining the mechanical and industrial products - suggest parts of the body or other organic forms. In this way, the choice of her material - from the bathroom fittings have an indispensable affinity with the meaning/reading of these art pieces. As one becomes aware of one's body in no other place, more than what one experiences inside the walls of a bathroom. During the shower or a bath, a person comes into [or returns] to his/her bare/pure self [at least physically] and in most cases has the chance to view one's own body and to examine it in detail - and from various angles.

Thus the relationship of the body, the awareness of its presence and the realization of its sensu­ous pleasure are associated with the sanitary fittings within a bathroom. Adeela, in her work, brings out that connection into an open space and highlights the physicality of man and woman's body - either as a tool or like a vessel through combining the simple parts into one organic shape. The shape that may not be named into a specific organ, but one cannot avoid recalling all the suggestive/suggested substitutes.

With the current body of work, Adeela has shown a maturity in her chosen vocabulary, since most elements in these works are not changed from their initial state. Basically it is the careful placement and the number of these pieces that has completed their transformation - into a work of art. A process that every artist aims for [and, which was best seen in the 'Bull's Head' by Picasso, where the seat and handle bar of a bicycle were joined, which look like the animal's head]. This work by Pablo Picasso affirmed that instead of manual labour, it is the idea, which elevates an object into the realm of art: A concept that is evident in the new works of Adeela Suleman!

Quddus Mirza is an artist, art critic and curator based In Lahore, Pakistan