March 16, 2003

‘Every inch of her miniature surface is minutely patterned with repetitive precision. Aisha Khalid’s work and her observations capture the attention and imagination of art enthusiasts throughout Pakistan,’ writes Marjorie Husain

Miniaturist Aisha Khalid’s first exhibition in Karachi was held in 1999 in conjunction with her husband Imran Qureshi. Both the young artists acknowledged a traditional source while developing an individual expression.

At that time, Aisha was teaching part-time at the National College of Arts, Lahore, as well as freelancing as a textile designer specialising in block printing. Her work at the exhibition resounded with strong design elements, the geometric order creating dimensional illusions; the subject touched on pertinent social issues.

Stunning in its impact, the artist’s most vibrant and intensely emotional work on display was a painting dedicated to Imran, Just For You, in which she decorated a horizontal panel with her own painted, electro-cardiogram heart beats. Aisha Khalid had arrived on the scene.

By the year 2000, Aisha had taken part in numerous group displays in major cities of Pakistan and abroad. She had had two solo exhibitions to her credit and showed her work again in Karachi in a four-artist display. The incredible detail of her work painted in a miniature format described a female viewpoint in a traditional community.

The message was veiled in a language of symbolism that utilized a vocabulary of motifs, draperies, flowers and curtains. Often emulating a ‘stage-set’ effect, every inch of the miniature surface was minutely patterned with repetitive precision. Aisha Khalid’s work and her observations captured the attention and imagination of art enthusiasts throughout Pakistan.

About this time, the artist decided she needed to widen her range of experience. Imran had a busy programme with considerable travel lined up, and that factor helped to motivate Aisha in accepting a two-year fellowship at the Rijksak Academie, Amsterdam. It was to be a tremendous learning experience.

“It was actually a perfect situation for an artist. The Academie allotted me a studio and supplied me with all the materials I required. Everyone spoke a little English so communication was not a problem. There was a block of eight studios where artists worked but it was very lonely.

“At night there was no sound to be heard and I spent a fortune on the telephone talking to Imran. Once I phoned him at three in the morning not realising the difference in time and he was fast asleep in Australia.

“There were so many questions about my work the majority of people could not understand what I did. They found my work very exotic and were stunned by its beauty, so they said, and they couldn’t read the message. They would ask me, is it about religion? Or tradition? “

Seemingly delighted to be home again, Aisha Khalid talked of the wide range of experiences she has undergone and the various ‘culture’ shocks now tempered with the diffusion of time and space. Declaring her intention to give priority to her work in the immediate future, she looked forward to getting down to some uninterrupted work, with some part-time teaching in the studio. Students turn up anyway”.

There are several exhibitions of her work scheduled in London, New York and elsewhere and the artist is aware that life rarely turns out as planned.

It is surprising to learn that the Aisha originally planned a career in medicine; that her confessed ‘obsession’ for art’ grew with her art training at the NCA. It was there she met her husband-to-be, Imran Qureshi, her one-time teacher. From the NCA she graduated with distinction in 1997, began to participate in group exhibitions and set up a textile block-printing workshop with Imran.

In a recent collection of artworks shown at the Canvas gallery, Karachi, Aisha displayed paintings, fabric pieces, and in direct contrast to her miniature work, assemblages of delicate black threads veiling long, metal needles and set on surfaces covered with paint or fabric. There was, also a video film showing the artist continuously embroidering a flower motif while a foreign hand unpicked the threads.

In the current paintings, the Amsterdam experience is documented by the inclusion of Holland’s national flower, the tulip, replacing the earlier lotus blossom in Aisha’s imagery. Fitting comfortably with her signature style of ‘curtains and burqa’, the fine white net curtain, invariably wide open and common to Dutch households, is decorated with a repetitive pattern of ‘eyes’.

Referring to the posters seen abroad, Aisha took her concept to a larger scale partnered by a miniature piece hung by its side. “I enjoy painting on a larger scale, the concept was ‘posters’ what is shown and what is reality and here the two of these are together.

“The blue colour comes out of the ‘camouflage’ of a previous sequence. I was very interested to read of the development of ‘tulips’ as an industry in the 15th century at the same time that Holland achieved independence from Spain. The red colour used with dazzling intensity represents certain aspects of Amsterdam.”

How did this rather reserved young woman manage alone in a breezy Amsterdam, a swinging tourist-focused city so different from the conservative countryside of Holland? Aisha spoke frankly of her impressions, difficulties and joys.

“I found the way of life and approach to painting in Amsterdam very different to my expectations. Here we get the wrong impressions from the western media and tend to regard western women as very independent, liberal and confident; but that is not so. Actually I found the general exploitation of women and their bodies very shocking. The media, every magazine, distorts the image of women, and I used to ask them how they saw themselves.”

When we discussed the traditions of Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and the Dutch landscape painters, Aisha explained: “These days very few people work in that way except for the drawing room painters and they are very commercial. In that ambience I began to use fabric in my work.”

A break in routine occurred after the tragic events of September 11, 2001. The authorities of the Rijksak Academie thought it best that Aisha should return to Pakistan for a while, preparing for her ‘open studio’ exhibition which is part of the programme. These events entered the artist’s work in several ways.

“Last year I used camouflage material with embroidery and showed these pieces in my ‘open studio’ exhibition at the Rijkasak Academie in September 2002.”

Aisha explained that the rich fabric artworks on display in Karachi assimilated pieces saved from her parents’ wedding outfits. The black velvet contrast referred to her trip to perform Umrah and the black cloth with gold decoration covering the Kaaba.

Before the Amsterdam experience, fabrics were a strong visual element in Aisha’s work, and they continue to formulate powerful motifs confirmed by a broader experience. I asked Aisha where the ‘blue burqa’ images came from.

“The media in the west took up the image of the burqa as a symbol of women’s subjugation. It was an extremely simplified view. ‘Women in Afghanistan were forced to wear burqas, hence they were miserable’. Pictures of women showing their faces in Kabul were shown as proof of ‘their present happy status.’

“Previously I was working with the burqa image in a not very positive way, exploring the questions, ‘how’ and ‘why’ through my paintings. Now the feeling has changed, women wear them as a cultural tradition and are quite content with that so a positive element is there.

“I sometimes felt it hard to ‘get through’ to people, there are so many misconceptions and I was constantly explaining things. Then they would ask me questions about my work like ‘why didn’t I use silkscreen instead of painting tiles’, ‘it’s easier’. They pointed out an Asian woman settled in Amsterdam who was painting in a western style and that was the example held out to me.

“Sometimes in workshops and talks there were as many as 50 people on one side, and I on the other. The Rijksak Academie personnel were amazed at my strength and tenacity in taking on all of them on my own.”

Seemingly fragile, but immensely strong, Aisha smiled at the difference between concepts and reality.