Saniya Farooq
Saniya Farooq, a visual artist from Pakistan, currently based in the UK. Completed her Masters in Fine Arts, with a Distinction from UCA. She is a painter with a multidisciplinary approach, and explores the dynamic interplay of traces, motion, and subjective perceptions. She is interested in the transformative process, repurposing of surfaces and distorting the familiar; creating a point where the seen and suggested converge. Statement Her ongoing series of work "Transception" is an exploration of how static forms can embody movement through the layering of surface, material, and subjective experience within the field of painting. The process involves a series of kinesthetic activities of mark making, repurposing and incorporating everyday objects with painting techniques, creating a dialogue between form and content. Ordinary material becomes a site of transformation, where traces of motion are embedded in stillness. Drawing from Merleau-Ponty's notion that perception is embodied and always incomplete, the work creates an interplay between what is seen and what is suggested, producing an energy that lingers in the gap. The viewer's movement and interaction activates shifting impressions, where perception itself becomes both subject and medium.
Process
These images are from my lovely studio at my uni in Farnham. One thing evident in the process of my work is, it's definitely messy, I interact with materials and pigment up close and personal. I am in no rush to finish a piece. I give it the time and the space it needs, take breaks when needed, and let each previous step determine the step ahead. The work has changed during the course of my MA, and this style is quite new and refreshing to me. I have now become a person who sees random scraps and thinks about the creative possibilities. Due to the highly transformative process, I like to record as much of it as possible and enjoy seeing how it comes about from nothingness.
Influences
The images in this thread include Eadweard Muybridge's study of motion, which greatly contributed to my gestural moving forms. One thing that drew my attention time and time again was the process, the unsure, unresolved and rawness of how something can try to transform through time spent on it, looking at artists in their studios and the magic that emerges out. An inspiration among many was Cecily Brown, how she describes her process of painting resonated so much with me. Some other things that were informing the work was studying mind and matter and philosophers like Descartes, John Dewey, Nelson Goodman and lastly the very integral find Maurice Merleau-Ponty. If i were to mention some non art inspirations, i would say materials. Give me random material and watch how I will give it a creative purpose. Ending this entry on the note that art comes from within, it is Alchemy not chemistry.
Challenges
I was so busy painting I lost the meaning behind it, Then someone sat me down and asked me real questions, where was I in the work, apart from painting, where were my thoughts, use of my creative freedom- I had no answers all I knew was they were right and it stopped me in my steps, I couldn't pick up the brush for more than week, made me realise, how much my creativity stems from my mind, and now that it was clouded, the art block was too real to ignore. After a lot of research, reading, reflections and conversations. I embraced the parts of myself that wanted to experiment, I started "Transception" from scratch, executing all my ideas and finding meanings, untangling things one by one. I started seeing progress and resolving to the best of my understanding.
Reflection
The main objective of my work moving forward is now exploring movement in stillness, creating a space that has lingering energy due to the motion suggested but not released. Audience has now become a very integral part for me in completing the work, perception has not only become a subject it is also acting as a medium in the work. The work has arrived at a very interesting place. I am enjoying mixed media installation work, as well as the connection of the form with content. Layering materials is an interesting point in the work and is something that will be explored further. The idea of leaving a lingering presence in absence, a suggestion of a subject and leaving it open to be interpreted is opening creative doors for me to explore a lot within. There is room for a lot of growth, and potential for the work to be developed into a much greater experience, not only for the viewers but also myself, as the first spectator of the work. My advice to anyone will be, consistency is important, create as much as you can, go out of your comfort zone, be uncomfortable and do not be afraid to make bad art that makes you feel good within, that's what matters the most.
