Mapping Memory is part of Transforming Narratives’ online collaborative project. Over the time frame of four months, Shaheen Ahmed, Jafrin Gulshan and Saba Khan consolidated the archives from Birmingham (UK), Lahore and Bangladesh to map out movement of ideas, friendships and conversations. This led to an understanding of a larger narrative between the regions through our artists. We have chosen artists on their institution building capacities, those who played roles in pedagogy and as mentors and were pioneers of art movements. Our predecessors had the privilege to cross borders, study abroad which allowed free flow of ideas and aesthetics. However in more recent years artists have faced more pertinent challenges with regards to travel and higher education escalating fees. Perhaps through this 2020 pandemic artists will work towards more environmentally sustainable online collaborations.
Saba Khan is a visual artist who lives and works in Lahore. Her work varies from painting, sculpture, photography to installation, to curating exhibitions and artists’ residencies. Saba's recent works are expeditions performed by an all-female artists’ group that studies ecology, impact of development and the role of the female gender in spaces of power. The collective visits monumental and ambitious sites, such as dams and barrages, that have transnational effects on the environment. She also founded Murree Museum Artist Residency, an artist-led initiative in 2014 which has published several artists’ books. Khan teaches at the National College of Arts, Lahore.
Shaheen Ahmed is a Birmingham based UK artist whose practice is driven by
empathy, reworking maps to share narratives of statelessness, crippling
infrastructure and disparagement. Shaheen creates Kirigami map art along with
brush, ink and thread work. This unique style evolved whilst studying book binding
and gestural mark making in Italy, as part of her residency with the National Trust.
Shaheen's recent collaboration at the Lapworth Museum of Geology enabled her to
experiment with scientific research relating to geometry formulations and geological
maps around plate tectonics (movement of a place). Shaheen uses a multitude of
techniques and approaches that are layered within her work, from calligraphy to
digital and Islamic geometry.
Email: shaheenahmed315@gmail.com
Jafrin Gulshan (Mapping Memory) is an artist, art writer and researcher based in Bangladesh. She works in a multidisciplinary approach with drawing, painting, printmaking, installation, performance and curation. Her work encompasses the range from personal fantasy to collective activism that emphasizes the everyday experience of life. Participated in many group exhibitions and workshops. Research is another part of her interest and has had an article published in a reputed journal.
Tahia Farhin Haque (Fabric Under My Skin)
Artist Bio
Tahia Farhin Haque is a visual artist and a photographer who is on her journey of expression. She is from Bangladesh; throughout her life she has been fascinated by images and by how they can change perceptions and internal paradigm. Her works are intricately woven by her experiences and observations and her attempt to question the veil of shadows surrounding us. Haque’s visual memory field challenges the linear-modernist idea of the past as a distant place, drawing attention to its embodied endurance in and through the narrative. She has worked with New York Times Gender, exhibited at Dhaka Art Summit and is grantee of Prince Claus Fund.
Email: tahiafarhinwork@gmail.com