Visual Allegories: Unveiling Stories

Artist Statement

Khadijah Rehman

Playing on a contrast between intricate detail and flat patches of colour, between a tumbling together of texture and pattern and pallid faces, these works borrow from ancient and modern family photographs to create compositions that are reminiscent of dreamscapes. The skewed compositions and natural elements seek inspiration from Mughal and Persian miniatures, while the night has been used as the backdrop for these strange scenes, of personal introspection and human interaction, ranging from acts of everyday familial intimacy to events that hover between the past and the present in their quality of universality. Visual elements from memory and dream come together to create a patchwork of imagery, with the motifs of windows, screens and archways acting as a visual device to create tangible layers within the works, as if every setting were a stage. Like most dreams, oddities occur – slight instances of glitches in the fabric of the narrative, and strange birds, animals and flora make an appearance, as if magnified and eccentrified by memory. Each work is a nod to some aspect of human interaction and behaviour, and elements of family, love, longing, transformation and introspection remain at the forefront.

Sarah Mir

Mir creates dynamic family portraits employing unique aesthetic language as she takes religio-cultural constraints into account, depicting notions of family life and propriety by juxtaposing family portraits with culturally accepted images. The family members experience a comical, exaggerated distortion and despite remaining representational, may just manage to escape the invasive supervision implemented by societal norms. The austerity of culturally relevant family dynamics is also mocked in a frivolous, facetious manner. Time, which is nostalgically preserved in family photographs, comes in conflict with the playful contemporary tone of the work.