ARTIST'S STATEMENT

Words -- written or spoken, understood or misunderstood, poetic or prosaic, curvilinear or rectilinear, on the computer screen, or on paper -- are what motivate me to create my visual narrative. I am fascinated by how, through language, we understand a great deal about ourselves and things around us, and how ideas: simple, complex and abstract, are conveyed and understood using symbols. Another aspect that also intrigues and inspires me to use language as a vehicle for my art is the endless possibilities through interchanging letters, words and phrases; to express thoughts, ideas and concepts. Lastly, it is also very important for me to express these ideas from my perspective as a woman.

Just as a literary piece is convincing when there is congruity and flow in the writing -- along with interesting ideas -- visual works of art, for me, become more engaging when they have a nice balance, rhythm and direction, along with a sincere thought process. This is how I relate my formal compositions with that of the literal and lyrical writings -- rearranged and restructured symbols, as purely lines and shapes. As a visual artist, I do not follow the rules of any language; my intention is to reconstruct the thought process. Therefore, the text -- whether they are borrowed from works of great poets and philosophers or just from a common phrase -- become self-contained and dynamic visual objects. Although viewers may recognize familiar letters, words, or symbols from a particular language, however, the words in those artworks become indecipherable. My objective in choosing those words is to show the essence of their message through abstraction; by using overlapping shapes and lines which create tension and movement and stir up emotions.

Being a female artist with a multicultural back ground, my objective is to also represent women’s inherent right to be expressive in how and what they feel and think. Utilizing language from appropriated text and as a metaphor, my intention is to further push the idea of empowerment for women. In my work, many times those ideas are expressed as a musical note, a speech-bubble, a scream, or even as revolting as vomit.

While some of these art pieces depict calm and peace with gentle flows and soft curves to express the thought process; others express chaos through their sharp edges and diagonals. These visual compositions range from wall-mounted sculptures in organic forms to more cubic-looking geometric forms, from uplifting melodic spirals, to downward flowing, and meandering three-dimensional installations. The choice of colors and mediums are also used thoughtfully. For example, the transparency depicts the lucidity, whereas the pearlescent finish symbolizes the richness and rarity. The use of resin, metal or any other material allows more freedom to experiment with the form as well as give a fresher look to see the text in a three-dimensional art form; as opposed to be drawn in two-dimension on paper. The shadows created by the shapes of those symbols are also vital to the compositions as they add further depth behind the meaning of the phrases.

Language is the greatest invention in our evolutionary process, our civilization, our history, and most importantly in understanding who we as human beings are. Words and symbols -- either appropriated or one’s own, visual or literal -- are all forms of expression for me as an artist. It is this freedom of expression in a dynamic and visual form that I continue to take inspiration for my creative art process to express how I see, feel, and think.

The text in my sculptures and installations are revolutionary poems, appropriated mostly from famous Farsi, Urdu and English poets, such as Rumi, Saadi, Khayyam, Ghalib, Faiz, and Fitzgerald, to name a few, who all wrote powerfully about freedom of thought and speech. The small-scale wall-mounted sculptures, “Speech Bubbles,” represent the poems’ poignant and piercing power to induce strong emotions. As many of these poems have also been sung by famous singers from the sub-continent, the suspended installations also express the poems’ melodic power and ability to elicit uplifting thoughts. The shadows cast on the wall are also vital to the aesthetic as they add additional depth and layers behind their meaning. My goal is to translate their poetic dynamism into visual energy. By pairing female forms with poetic text, I strive to show a connection between the mind and soul: a mind is free to think and a soul free to exist - separate from their utterance as a sound and with or without the coverings of an outer garment. The text is used aesthetically, as a flowing pattern; as well as philosophically, paired with the ethereal figures it enables a dialogue with the viewer or monologue between mind and body.Through the interactive nature of my installations and sculptures, I pose questions for each culture to examine from their own perspective: Recognizing that this work represents women’s freedom to think, can this work be called a universally Feminist art?(Simeen Farhat) While today’s delineations in the Iranian Plateau, the Sub-Continent and Transoxiana have led to nation states with distinct and differing cultural identities, these nations were for more than a millennia part of the greater Iranian Empire and its progeny. This shared history is literally and conceptually evident in certain art forms including Persian poetry, which all but belie the contested and often violent history of the region after its fragmentation. It is to this body of art, Persian, Perso-Urdu and Urdu poetry specifically, which Simeen Farhat has referred for her re-engagement with tradition within her framework of modernism. Farhat’s notions of modernism and modernity have purposefully countered the more recent commonality found in the region -- that of militant extremism -- which in many ways has given a Medusa like rebirth to many traditions under pressure from notions of secular modernity. As such, Farhat has not followed certain subtexts which were subsumed into Pakistani society in the 1980s, but has chosen a more secularly ethereal approach in defining Pakistani identity, the quest for which has managed to perplex for nearly six decades. Espousing poetry which exhort the freedom of expression, which highlight gender empowerment, and which propose spirituality, has served as Farhat’s act of defiance. Studying the classism of the poems and using the forms of the Arabic script, while giving the superficial impression of safely traditional aesthetics, are in fact Farhat’s journey into further abstraction; by casting words and letters as visual elements, she has transferred poetry’s dynamism and melodic power into conceptual and visual energies.At the Sharjah Museum, her most recent museum solo show, Farhat paired the female figure with text, positing that representation and abstraction can act as nemeses. These figures were abstracted down to their pure form, devoid of features and hair, and were thus disengaged from their usual burden of identity. Farhat wanted this disengagement to depict her interpretation of what she sees as the nexus binding a mind to a soul. For her current solo exhibition, Farhat has continued this theme, albeit using wall installations she has playfully termed Speech Bubbles. Farhat’s Speech Bubbles use the geometrically manipulated forms of the alphabet, taken from her reasoned choice of poetry, to create various modular configurations, the result being that this body of work now firmly lies in the domain of conceptual abstraction.(Ali Bagherzadeh)

SIMEEN FARHAT

While today’s national delineations in the Iranian Plateau, the Sub-Continent and Transoxiana have led to states with distinct cultural identities, and with divergent and defining recent histories, these regions and states were for more than a millennia part of the greater Iranian Empire and its progeny, most notably the early Mughals. This shared history is literally and conceptually evident in certain art forms including Persian poetry, which all but belie the contested and often violent history of the region after its fragmentation. It is to this body of art -- Persian, Perso-Urdu and Urdu poetry specifically – which Simeen Farhat has referred for her re-engagement with tradition within her framework of modernism.

Farhat’s notions of tradition and modernism, or modernity in general, have purposefully countered the more recent commonality found in the region -- that of militant extremism, which in many ways, has also given a Medusa like rebirth to many traditions under pressure from notions of social modernity and artistic modernism. In addition, Farhat has not followed certain subtexts which were subsumed into Pakistani society in the 1980s, but has chosen a more ethereal, a more secular, approach in defining Pakistani identity, the quest for which has managed to perplex for nearly six decades.

Capturing poetry which exalts freedoms of thought, of expression and of gender empowerment, and which endear spirituality and calm, has served as Farhat’s act of defiance. Studying the classism of the poems, and using the Arabic script, while giving the superficial impression of safely traditional aesthetics, are in fact Farhat’s journey into further abstraction, and of espousal of philosophical secularism. By casting words and letters as visual elements, she has transferred the poetry’s dynamism and melodic power into conceptual and visual energies.

Farhat has also paired the female figure with text, trying to depict that representation and abstraction can act as nemeses. These figures are abstracted down to their pure form, devoid of features and hair, and are thus disengaged from their usual burden of identity, and are allowed to translate Farhat’s interpretation of the nexus of mind and of soul. Farhat’s newer works and various media now firmly live in the domain of abstraction, using the geometrically manipulated forms of the Arabic script to dominate her work in various modular configurations.