Traversing Borders in Art

Traversing Borders in Art

Artists: Masooma Syed and Rakhi Peswani

Discussant: Amrita Gupta Singh

In association with Guild Art Gallery

Date: Monday, January 15, 2010

Time: 6.30pm

Venue: Goethe Hall, Max Mueller Bhavan

Masooma Syed received B.F.A in Painting (1994) and Masters in Visual Arts (2002) from the National College of Arts, Lahore. She is a recipient of CommonWealth Foundation Fellowship Award Art & Craft, 1996 and HAT International Research Fellowship, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, England, 2007. She has taught in several design and fine arts schools across the world since 1996 and has participated in several group shows internationally and solo shows in Pakistan and Australia.

Masooma will present her works and also address the development of her art practice in dialogue with her contemporaries in Pakistan. Masooma and other artists of her generation shaped the face of the contemporary art scene in Pakistan and have succeeded in opening up a fresh chapter with the discourse of the local with the global. Her presentation will also emphasize on the concerns of academics, teaching art and/or practicing art in contemporary Pakistan. .

Rakhi Peswani has a Bachelor's degree in painting and a Master's in sculpture from M.S University of Baroda. Rakhi is a recipient of the Emerging Artist Award, 2007, presented by Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA), Vadehra Art Gallery; Inlaks Scholarship in residence at Cittadellarte, Fondazione Pistoletto; Peers-2003 at KHOJ, Delhi. She has participated in selected group shows. Her solo shows include ‘Intertwinnings’ at Vadehra Art Gallery in 2009, ‘Sonnet for Silent Machines’ at Jehangir Nicholson Gallery and The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai in 2007. Rakhi is currently teaching at Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, Hyderabad Central University, Hyderabad since 2004.

Rakhi is inspired by the chaotic maturity of Indian cities into metropolitans as they provide an abundant engagement with the visual. Her point of departure is to locate a visual / verbal / tangible language that blends the local character of our system and the global character of verbal language. The experience of fragmentation in the contemporary metropolis brings in the focus toward the processes of traditional crafts while allowing her to re-route the notion of oneself through the language of these processes. In her presentation, Rakhi will address these issues while talking about her art practice and its development over the years.

Tea/Coffee: 6.00pm – 6.30pm