Saba Qizilbash

Mirage
Saba Qizilbash, 21st Century Love Hurts (2009),
4ft x 5ft, Acrylic on Paper

Qizilbash lives and works in Dubai. She currently teaches at American University Dubai and is part of an upcoming show at the Jam Jar in September.

Reem Fekri: Describe your work, conceptually and aesthetically?

Saba Qizilbash: My current work addresses issues of maternal protection in a world mutated by laws of man and nature. I've used the bee-latched-to-a-flower as a visual of a symbiotic relationship that repeats itself throughout the series. In other works, the jellyfish carefully cradles babies as they float to their destination. In my works, babies and children stare at the wonder of nature with a deep sense of awe and amazement. For them bees are bright yellow 'bumblebees' that fly about happily in gardens. And Jellyfish are wonderful marine creatures that float about like magic. The children in my works play happily in the proximity of nature in a fine balance.

RF: Precise and intimate drawings that resemble Indian miniatures are often present within your work. Why is this? Is it in relation to your artistic education?

SQ: In my previous series I was dealing with the female form rendered in a very miniature style. Over the past 2 years the female form has become more illusive and ghostly finally replaced by images of children. My training at National college of art was very traditional with a great deal of emphasis on the human figure, precision and skill in general. I suppose that training has become part of my practice.Emphasis on traditional aesthetics and skill is often a dominant feature of art from my region.

RF: Your earlier work often depicts a young (almost angelic) woman and babies. Eventually the presence of young children and dangerous creatures (such as jelly fish and bee’s) enters the work. Colours have developed from being monotonous and murky to vibrant and slightly erratic. Can you describe the development of this?

SQ: Over the past few years my work has become more chromatic and prismatic- as opposed to the sepia and monochromes I was dealing with. I think that has a lot to do with the growth of my child, the colors she is constantly surrounded by - including the snacks she eats, books she reads, the TV shows she watches and the toys she plays with. It was inevitable that the colors of her life would seep into my (world)works.

RF: There is a sense of tragedy and loss in earlier work, yet in your newer work there is a different type of loss involved – such as the loss of innocence rather than the loss of someone or something?

SQ: Yes - a different sense of loss. My previous works dealt with experienced loss and my current works deal with the fear of loss. Broadly speaking, the loss of trust in what you are told to be the truth by either your parent or authority or perhaps the Greater Authority.

RF: Later works (which are evidently brighter and bolder) have a very contradictory sense of aesthetic – for example, images of children are combined with dangerous elements of nature such as jellyfish and bee’s, which possibly creates a certainty and confusion within its audience. Have you purposely created a sense of vulnerability and insecurity within your work?

SQ: I'm trying to create a balance I often see missing in real life - and to evolve a visual language full of contradictions that co-exist and interdepend in harmony. There is so much human conflict in the world we live in; culture to culture, religion to religion, caste to caste, mind to mind. Through my works I try to illustrate possibilities of conflict resolution.

No Two Burns Are the Same   Your body is an extension

Saba Qizilbash, When They Came For Her In The Garden
(2009) , 4ft x 5ft, Acrylic on Paper

  Saba Qizilbash, The Bodies That Were Not Ours (2009) , 4ft x 5ft, Acrylic on Paper

Human presence is very evident within your work and more recently the addition more dangerous elements of nature. Interestingly, you tend to steer away from what artists within theregion tend to focus on such as political upheaval, gender issues, media portrayal of the region in the west and so forth – would you say that your work has an unwritten biographical context?

I've never enjoyed taking the trodden path - even if it takes longer to reach my destination. I'm so keen on understanding my immediate world that at times the rest becomes a faded blur. And I feel that in order for me to truly comprehend what exists around me I have to comprehend and accept what exists within me. In doing so I'm in no rush for this journey to come to an end. While living in US I felt a great deal of pressure to paint the woes of a Muslim woman in the context of post 9/11, to highlight the issue of 'purdah' and suppression. I struggled with the topic and realized I had never felt any of those things. Sure I recognized those issues in my society and condemned its existence but the experience was never really mine to share. Having said that, you can never completely amputate your past, your shared culture and the collective history of struggle of your people. It lives in your work, perhaps not very blatantly, at times just underneath the surface.

RF: What are your other influences?

SQ: It has to be Qawalli - Indo-Pak Sufi music. But nothing motivates me like fresh contemporary art from Pakistan.


Website Design Agency - Webheads Interactive