Hey Give Me a Pen, I’m Going to Re-write This Narrative
There is a journey in her work, perhaps a reflection of her own from Pakistan to America. In ‘Desi Mona Lisa,’ the woman still wears a dome headdress but a smile lights up her face. Qayum even adds colour here, which brightens the overall mood of the painting.
In another striking work, ‘Of All The Gin Joints In All The Towns In All The World, She Walks Into Mine’, the figure stands perplexed, her gaze strong but her black shalwar kameez is now splattered with paint, possibly indicative of a moment in her journey where the woman experienced something new and perhaps colourful.
In ‘Hey Give Me A Pen, I’m Going To Re-Write This Narrative,’ Qayum reimagines a very important Christian event: the Assumption of Mary (into Heaven), mother of Jesus. This event has been recreated by several famous painters in the past with similar imagery of the Virgin Mary surrounded by angels. Though the woman in Qayum’s painting is similar to the ones in her other works, this painting stands out among the rest as the most unique for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it is the most colourful, as the warm red background perfectly offsets the cool blues of the woman’s dress. Secondly, the painting does not have an abstract background like the others and, though similar geometric patterns peer out through the sky and clouds, their appearance is considerably less. Finally, the artist here has taken her inspiration from a different religion and though it exists in Pakistan, it is more widespread in the US.
As a result, one can’t help but look at this as the conclusion of Qayum’s journey — from being kept in a closed box, surrounded by boundaries of culture and society’s collective interpretation of scripture to coming out, exploring and realising that there is power within oneself to overcome such prejudice. The painting’s title even suggests that all women — no matter their restraints — can break free; they can rise, just like the lady in the painting.
“We’re all Mad Here” by Sehyr Qayum is being displayed at the Canvas Gallery in Karachi from July 3 to July 12, 2018
Published in Dawn, EOS, July 8th, 2018