Statement
As an artist originally from Pakistan and now residing in Glasgow, Scotland, I find inspiration in the rich architectural heritage of the regions I have called home. My artistic journey is driven by a profound fascination with the ornate façades of old grand homes, mosques, and palaces found in the Islamicate civilisations of the Middle East, Central and South Asia, North Africa, Turkey, and the Iberia. These remarkable structures, with their intricate doors, windows, balconies, towers, and minarets, embody a sense of mystery and allure.
Since moving to Scotland in 2001, my artistic repertoire has expanded to encompass Scottish, British, and other European architecture. Drawing from my experiences and travels, I have crafted representations of renowned buildings such as the Templeton on the Green in Glasgow and the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba. Through my work, I aim to capture the intrigue of ornate doorways and windows, inviting viewers to imagine living in the worlds that might lie beyond.
Doors and windows are portals into the life and soul of a people, connecting as they do outer and inner worlds, public and private domains, and embodying notions of trade and worship, birth and transfiguration. One only has to walk through the entrance to a church or mosque, to feel on one’s skin the fractals of light falling through stained glass, and to hear the almost subliminal music of chant and running water.
As a Pashtun woman from the Northern regions of Pakistan, my artistic expression is deeply rooted in the mélange of Persian, Central Asian and South Asian traditions which comprises my heritage. The heavy wooden doors, the fortified walls, and the meticulously adorned windows and balconies reify security and a rich interior social and family life run normatively by women. It is an ethos of enclosed but interlocking courtyards shielded from both street and sun yet embodying an innate power which belies facile stereotypes, and which is a source of both inspiration and hope for the future.
A synthesis of my Pashtun heritage and my physical, social, and psychological exposure to Scottish/British/European culture and life has driven my artistic and architectural vision. I have discovered remarkable confluences, e.g., in the work of Alexander Thomson, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Arts and Crafts Movement of Williams Morris and Ruskin, and the Art Nouveau movement. Through my art, I embark on a personal exploration of identity, belonging, and cultural exchange, simultaneously celebrating and interrogating the multilayered traditions of both Pakistan and Scotland while infusing a contemporary sensibility into my designs.
I aim to create something unique and beautiful but also dynamic. I often recycle and re-imagine materials that have had previous, frequently utilitarian, functions. I like to think I am helping reincarnate them to life and love, albeit in a different form and context. It is my aspiration that my artwork act as a portal, inviting viewers to engage with and appreciate diverse artistic traditions and shifting realities and thus to enculturate a journey from the local to the general, from past to present to future and from the physical to the conceptual. My art is a testament to the transformative power of cultural exchange across time and space and serves as a visual narrative of my personal journey as a Pakistani Pashtun woman living in Scotland.
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