Tooba Ashraf is the fifth recipient of the Vasl – Khurram Kasim Art Foundation (KKAF) Research Grant, 2022. Born in 1994, Tooba is a visual artist, researcher and aspiring social scientist currently based in Lahore, Pakistan. She was also one of the resident artists for Vasl’s 14^th Taaza Tareen residency, ‘And So It Happened’.

The Vasl-KKAF Research Grant of 2022 was comprised of 4 jury members, Khurram Kasim, Saira Danish Ahmed, Sameera Raja and Sophia Balagamwala.

Samsara

In Dharmic traditions, samsara refers to the concept of rebirth. According to Monier-Williams, samsara derives from the phrase samsr, which means to move in a circuit. In Buddhist ancient writings, samsarana denotes going around through a succession of states; birth; a rebirth of living beings; and the world without impediment. It is a process of transmigration, metempsychosis, a cycle of living in which one repeats lives, from one body to another, a worldly life of constant change, rebirth, growth, decay, and death.[1][2][3] This notion sharply contrasts with the concept of moksha, also known as mukti, nirvana, nibbna, or kaivalya, which refers to liberation from this cycle of aimless wandering.[4]

In effort to celebrate the reincarnation of the divine feminine in its various forms, this project draws inspiration from Samsara. Comprising of 7 artworks and 1 poetry piece, the exhibition is self-portrait which makes use of the concept of reincarnation to symbolically envisage the rebirth of my own self through a selection of feminine symbols from South Asian art and literature with which I identify most emotionally. These works seek to challenge one’s sense of self and femininity as linear concepts. These varied forms are a synthesis of numerous traditions that have been a component of the culture in which I grew up.

In an instant, she has become a deity, and in another, she embodies the burning passion of love everlasting, sometimes she takes the guise of a nymph, at others a parda-nasheen (beneath the veils of chastity); the quintessential shapeshifter she is both revered and reviled by her admirers at once and becoming the focus of admiration and the target of their envy as she becomes a window into the divine. Through this series of artworks, I examine various qualities and traits that have garnered the admiration of so many and how these shared attributes whose reflections I see in myself define me and how I view my womanhood. To honour and give form to the beautiful essence of femininity that is my primary focus, I have utilised a variety of mediums, including painting, embroidery, and poetry.

[1] Monier-Williams, M., 1964. Sanskrit-English dictionary. Рипол Классик.[2] Wendy Doniger, and Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty. Karma and rebirth in classical Indian traditions. Univ of California Press, 1980.

[3] Louis de La Vallée Poussin, The Way to Nirvana. Cambridge University Press, 2012.

[4] Yuvraj Krishan, The Doctrine of Karma: Its Origin and Development in Brāhmaṇical, Buddhist, and Jaina Traditions. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1997.