Shameen Arshad
Exhibitions
Oceania - Royal College of Arts- 12th November 2018
The exhibition “Oceania” put up at the Royal College of Art covers several themes: voyage, settlement and a fluctuating identity due to conflicting cultures. Oceania is a show about the transformation of the Pacific Islands due to the arrival of Europeans in the area and its negative ramifications upon the native art and culture. The show talks about the eventual decline in the native population, due to interference by foreigners and how the colonial conflict and misuse of the land by foreigners led to the decline of many of their traditions.
Amongst many works was a video installation by Lisa Reihana titled “ In pursuit of Venus” where she tries to reconstruct history. The title and the style of painting though clearly indicative of the West, is used by Reihana to mourn the former Maori Identity. This made me think of ideas of how in order to preserve one’s native culture artists still resort to imagery based on Classical European Academic standards of painting.
The exhibition successfully disconnects one with their immediate surroundings. The work due to its foreign quality, also assumes an ethereal or an almost sinister feel which makes one think about the how the unfamiliar or the unknown assumes a certain menacing quality for individuals. What might seem to be regular in one tradition could be perceived as ominous in another. This idea is crucial to my practice as to make sure I’m getting my point of view across and make it more relatable rather than labelled as “exotic”.
The exhibition concludes with the painting “Kehe tau hauaga foou (To all new arrivals)” by John Pule which talks about a vibrant and rich world being destroyed by modernism- how many cultures and communities are annihilated to make them more “globally sophisticated”. Someone this really resonated with me. I felt that this was similar to the topics I am exploring, just set in another part of the world.
The British raj, the most influential one in the subcontinent, also claimed to bring a similar “sophistication” into the area by educating locals through western styles of education, which led to a disconnect of locals with their own culture.
Furthermore, it helped me understand the idea of imperialism through the lens of a different culture and its subsequent portrayal on canvas. I found the painting rather intriguing, where such a heavy topic is represented through simple line illustrations on canvas, without losing its severity.
Turner Prize 2018
Mohaimen’s “Tripoli Cancelled” shows his protagonist stuck alone at an abandoned airport. The film can be read in many different ways making it quite relatable. To me the film was more about boundaries; physical and psychological and how that affects human being. What the artist revealed to be a story of loneliness for me was something similar- isolation, granted not in the same way as Mohaiemen intent.
Trip to the National Gallery
After having the “methods and material” workshop with Tim, I started to investigate how paint is used my other artists, especially in the past to ensure its longevity. Thus I took a trip to the National Gallery, to look at how paint is employed in classic paintings. The trip was more about my investigation upon the materiality of paint and surface rather than the images themselves as I ended up documenting the placards rather the paintings themselves. It was fascinating to see how each room in the gallery, representing works from different cities in Europe seemed to have their own intrinsic style of using oil paints, amongst which the Flemish and Venetian became my favourite. This made me think about how I have to keep in mind how the style of painting is itself representative of different cultural identities not just the image that is conceived. Thus, in my work I have started to use a flatness that is reminiscent of Mughal miniature, a traditional artform that is instantly recognized as endemic to Pakistan.
At Home Deptford
The very posters for this show seemed to intrigue me, also the particularly catchy title. The exhibition consisted of the varied interpretations of private or domestic spaces. The show gave me an insight as to how other artists were dealing with the ideas I was mulling over at the time; the idea of a “home” or “safe space”.
.png)
.png)
I felt it was quite relevant to see the different representations of space before delving it into myself. I also came across a lot of symbols that have already used in my work such as the use of cardboard boxes as well as the use of prints / designs which help the viewer automatically connect the work to a particular time, space and culture. This is when I started looking into the universality of images and how that could benefit or even limit an artwork. This helped me make more informed decisions as to what images to include in my paintings, where the work is open to interpretation yet not completely inaccessible to a larger variegated audience.
The British Museum - postcards exhibition
Picture postcards are seen as documentation of the natural and built landscape of an area. They also include images that are considered as intrinsic of an area such as culture, lifestyle, religion, sports or even transportation. In the past postcards were used for correspondence whereas today they act more or less as decorations or souvenirs. However, in either case they represented select people and places to foreign audiences. The images that are on the cards are carefully selected or curated; thus I am interested in seeing which images appear on the cards after careful consideration.
Post cards have time and again come to my mind when thinking about this state of “In between-ness” - this sense of being in a No Man’s Land. Thus, the contradictory nature of the item itself fascinates me. Though the images on the cards are tied down to particular geographical locations yet it’s very nature is rather nomadic or shows a state of transition or kineticism.
.jpg)
.png)
My fascination with postcards was validated when I came across a collection of over 300 Indian image postcards that shows India’s relationship with the British or more specifically from the 1900s to 1930s. They document two cities- Madras and Bangalore that were considered as the centres during the colonial era.
Postcards were a cheap and efficient way of correspondence at the time. About 6 billion postcards were exchanged in the brief period of 1900- 1930, making them a rather important form of documentation. The mass production made the imagery chosen for the postcards hold great importance as it was majorly responsible for the portrayal of the subcontinent in countries that did not have much knowledge of the newly captured territories.
The Permanent South- Asian Collection at the V & A
Considering my interest in South Asian history as well as the idea of ownership I was advised to go visit the V & A museum. I continue to be in awe of how a single museum in the UK houses over 60,000 South Asian objects whereas the few museums back home have such sparse collections.
One artefact amongst the many at the V & A that seemed to stand out the most for me is “Tipu’s tiger”.
.jpg)
To me it talks about the sense of domination that the locals wanted over the British. The tiger, a symbol repeatedly used by Tipu Sultan is seen to be mulling a British official ,essentially leading to a painful death. The very sadistic nature of the object, that which has been so carefully crafted clearly brings to light the immense antipathy for the British rulers.
Furthermore, the item that represents this hatred is now housed in a prestigious museum in the UK. When you think about the item’s nature seems to change with the change in location. An instrument that initially showed Tipu Sultan’s conquest over the British and the resistance put up by Mysore is now reflective of the British’s victory over him. The item without being altered physically somehow stands for something completely opposite to its initial intent. This idea, though in this case is seen with reference to an object is not only limited to material objects. For me this also brings up the debate on how humans, moving from one place to another are seen in a different light; how without any change in appearance or demeanour they seem to be looked at in a completely different way.
Also, “Tipu’s tiger” brings up the idea of ownership of the object. Who does it belong to when it is part of both Indian as well as British history? Was I supposed to feel a certain affinity or similarity to it because it created in the subcontinent or was it okay to perceive it as a foreign artefact?
Frith Street Gallery - Raqs Media Collective
South Asian artworks based on personal accounts, quite often contain historical references and study of the socio-political climate of the past. I came across one such display recently by Raqs Media Collective at the Frith Street Gallery that talked about the lingering trauma in the subcontinent due to participation in the first world war. The exhibit draws on old transcripts, letters, diary entries, medical records, film and sound recordings to comment on how the war has ended but it reverberates with individuals to date and how the psychological implications have not yet ceased to exist. It demonstrated how the emotional upheaval experienced by individuals in history “never really ends”.
The exhibition was a beautiful symbiosis of material drawn from an eclectic collection. The artists have successfully combined these different visual mediums into a cohesive project. I also realized that when dealing with the complex and layered south Asian identity there are numerous choices to be made when it comes to material and execution. Just like the topic on hand, the execution is anything but straight forward, and normally better told in a variety of mediums. Furthermore, the show was instrumental in explaining how the past and the present can be contained on one surface as to reinforce the timelessness of the idea at hand.
Room to Breathe - Museum of Migration
I had the opportunity to go to the Museum of Migration. Tucked away in the top floor of what seemed like a warehouse is the museum where I witnessed the exhibit “ Room to breathe”. In response to Refugee Week the organization had set up a show by artists that had relocated to Britain sometime back; those that identified as “immigrants” or “away from home”. There was a sense of universality to the show. Artists from all over the world working on the feeling of exclusion or vulnerability that made the word “immigrant” more than reflective of just physical displacement. The exhibit was built up of immersive installations in the form of different domestic, work or academic spaces that speak volumes about the people that reside in the spaces despite their absence. The objects in each room, presented a different facet of he/ she who resides within it and calls it home, making the spaces living and breathing entities. It also gives a tangibility to the displaced identity that lives beyond the realm of normal labels.
Though the entire exhibition was intriguing my personal favourite was the shelf of kitchen items labelled with their own stories about their importance to the artist. As a south Asian I myself give great importance to the food culture. What we eat holds great importance to us and is an integral part of our society.
