Ali Trade Center Series IV (with Buddleia)

2022 - Textile (Textile)

188 x 130 cm

Risham Syed

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Risham Syed discovered a box of woven Chinese silk panels that was her mother’s most prized possession. Her mother had long talked about making quilts with these panels; there were many questions about what she would do with so many panels, which were ultimately used to compose Risham Syed’s work Ali Trade Center Series IV (with Buddleia) . After her mother’s death, Syed began to explore the history of this fabric as a material linked to commerce, power, social class, and culture, and thus linked to a history of violence, hardship, upheaval, and conflict. The objects, materials, textures, seals, and patina speak to us of time, history, memory, emotions. In seeking out mundane objects typically found in Punjabi-Victorian homes, she has also reflected on the rise, fall, and merger of large British companies such as Johnson Brothers and British Home Stores that evoke the complexity of international business competition throughout history. The presence of the Ali Trade Center tower is an extension of this commercial imperialism. The various iconographic references are located on a map of the region that Syed printed to give the work a geopolitical context. The most symbolic is the Budleia, also called butterfly tree, native to China, which is an uncontrollable invasive species present today throughout the world.

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Risham Syed has a diverse art practice in which painting and other mediums are used to explore issues of history, sociology, and politics. Living in a major metropolis like Lahore, she has experienced a momentous “urban transition” that has become very tangible in recent years. Her hometown plays a central role in her work, as does research related to the meaning of colonial history. She explores these issues by locating her work in a larger, often global, context and brings into play objects, borders, margins, and frames with political and social references. Sayed’s use of fabric, embroidery, and found objects, as well as her paintings speak to her connection of personal life and history to understand the present.

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Colors:

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• fabric.n.01
• materiality.n.02
• power.n.01
• class.n.03
• culture.n.01
• history.n.01