"Textile-makers and other creative individuals have knitted India together over centuries, creating a fabric that reflects a blend of faiths and regions, and many foreign influences."
Navina Najat Haidar
Grosvenor Gallery is delighted to announce its upcoming exhibition, 'Patterns of the Past: Weaving Heritage in 'Pakistani' Art', curated by Dr Zehra Jumabhoy. The artists include: Adeela Suleman, Bushra Waqas Khan, David Alesworth, Liaqat Rasul and Ruby Chishti.
The exhibition will be held in collaboration with Canvas Gallery, Karachi and will open with a private view at Grosvenor Gallery on Friday, 10 September 2021 from 6 - 8pm.
There will also be an Online Zoom seminar on Saturday, 18 September, from 1-3pm BST. Details of the session are given below. To register for the session please click the button at the bottom of the page, or email: art@grosvenorgallery.com.
The exhibition brings together five contemporary 'Pakistani' artists; each of whom use textiles to unravel conventional notions of art, heritage, nation and identity. While these artists have been defined as 'Pakistani', none of them are easy fits for the term. This show - and the especially 'tailored' works within it - aims to dismantle inter/national stereotypes about 'Pakistani art'.
Schedule Patterns of the Past's Conference: 18 September 2021
Half Day ZOOM Conference, Textile, Tradition & the Contemporary
Saturday, 18 September 2021, 1-3pm BST (British Summer Time)
5pm-8pm Pakistan Time Zone.
5.30pm-8.30pm India Time Zone.
This programme will pivot around the themes of the show, Patterns of the Past: Weaving Heritage in Contemporary 'Pakistani' Art, which includes artists Ruby Chishti, Adeela Suleman, Liaqat Rasul, David Chalmers Alesworth and Bushra Waqas Khan (Nominee for the Jameel Art Prize 2021). The exhibition brings together these contemporary artists because each of them explores the politics of memory in their work and have used textiles to unravel conventional notions of art, heritage and identity. They have worked with textiles, and via textiles, to fabricate complex comments on colonialism, unravelling its relationship to current socio-political concerns in the Subcontinent. Hence, even though these 5 artists have been defined as 'Pakistani', none of them are easy fits for the term. The especially 'tailored' works within the show dismantle inter/national stereotypes about 'Pakistani art' and the Conference has a similar aim. It will pull on certain thematic threads: South Asian heritage and textile history; ideas of British identity; current decolonising agendas with regard to both art history and British museum collections.
Speakers will include the exhibiting artists (who will explain their contributions for the show) as well as Prof. Salima Hashmi, Zohreen Murtaza, Uthra Rajgopal, Roisin Inglesby, Amrita Jhaveri and Prof. Shehnaz Ismail.