I am a Pakistani-Canadian artist born in Milton, Ontario. I now reside in Vancouver, British Columbia. I have recently completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. I am currently pursuing my Master of Fine Arts at Glasgow School of Art in Scotland. My art reflects my interest in humanity’s intangible thoughts and feelings. In my practice, I explore elements of abstraction through painting, drawing, and mixed media collage. Abstraction is a style that I think is very important, as it challenges the notion that representational artwork is the peak of art. Unfortunately, the general public sees this type of work as the most impressive, and this leads to the perception that all modern art is bad. I want to challenge the misconception that abstraction is pointless, and encourage people to give it a second chance. Colour, line, and shape are the most prominent aspects of my work, and I often get told that my art is simplistic. However, I believe it is beneficial to learn to appreciate the conceptual aspects of an artwork over its technical qualities. My favourite thing about showcasing my work is hearing all of the different interpretations from the viewers. I enjoy when someone explains how they found a message in my work that was completely unintended. This type of analysis helps the audience feel more connected to contemporary art, leading them to have a higher opinion on the art form.

@uhkechi

Process

As a part of my programme, we each got allocated a studio. It is in a shared room with other first and second year students also doing the MFA. I am used to working alone at home, so this was a big adjustment for me, but I am excited to decorate. I also had the chance to visit a Scottish tenement house with my halls of residence. They had dioramas displayed that showed the evolution of the traditional floorplan with three units, to the more modern rendition that only has two. This reminded me of playing in dollhouses as a child, so I decided to base my first project off of the art of blueprints. I did some initial sketches with paper using the photos I took as reference, and then I tried to recreate the forms by memory using paint. I went back and added some more details like furniture, and tried to make it look more like a blueprint, but I am struggling on how to achieve this. I know it looks unfinished, so my next steps are to try and figure out how to incorporate text, as I want to directly reference the history of tenement houses.

Influences

My biggest inspiration is Josef Albers' book Interaction of Colour. I got nonstop comparisons to his work when I was in undergrad, and his usage of colour, shape, and line is still something that I strive to achieve. I ended up buying my own copy so I can always refer back to it. Whenever I am struggling to come up with an idea for my next piece, I put on some music and sketch or paint whatever emotions or thoughts come to mind. I listen to a lot of Gorillaz, as I admire how much Damon Albarn pushes the boundaries of music. Jamie Hewlett's artwork really brings the characters to life, and he has such a unique artstyle. I am actually seeing them in March for my first concert ever. The most common way I pass the time is by watching Twitch streams, as they are easy to put on in the background. As you can probably tell, my favourite streamer is xQc. I tune into every single one of his streams, and he always puts me in a good mood. I am even doing my thesis project on streamers within the context of performance art.

Challenges

I once attempted to create a series of mixed media collages focused on found imagery. I did nine practice collages that I was very pleased with, so I felt confident enough to work bigger. I wanted to add in my own drawings, but I struggled to plan out a cohesive composition. I made the mistake of not properly planning anything out, as I was under the incorrect assumption that collages have to be spontaneous. This resulted in a collage where the found items and drawings did not match with one another, which I was quite unhappy about. The found items were mostly art-related flyers that I found while attending classes and volunteering at galleries, so it was hard to separate them from that context. The drawings were just random doodles and patterns that I liked. My second attempt went a lot better, as I focused on making everything purely abstract instead. I am still not completely satisfied with my take on collage, but I can at least say that I tried my best. Nowadays, I enjoy integrating mixed media into my paintings by adding relevant drawings and collaging other kinds of materials, such as patterned paper and decorative tape.

Reflection

As I mentioned before, I often get inspiration for upcoming work by listening to music. I recently did this experiment with the cast recording for Spring Awakening, as I have always enjoyed how musical theatre blends auditory and visual forms of art together with music. This show is particularly intriguing to me because the songs give you little to no context as to what is happening on stage. Since I have never had the pleasure of watching it live, I could only rely on my imagination for what the lyrics could be referencing. I did three practice paintings over the course of two hours. The first one was created while listening to All That’s Known, which has the protagonist lament about feeling perpetually misunderstood. The second was painted to My Junk, which is a satirical euphemism-filled back-and-forth between the male and female characters. The third was finished while listening to the finale, The Song of Purple Summer, which is meant to wrap things up, but still manages to be confusing. I am not sure if I am going to turn these into three separate paintings or combine them into one composition, but I am interested in seeing what they become.