‘UNMUTED’ members event for interrupted art.
‘In Sickness and In Health’ and ‘Two Hundred Thousand Forest Leaves For The Forest Floor’ were shown at Somerset House on 8th June 2023 for the private members’ evening event ‘UNMUTED’ hosted by Interrupted Art. Curated by Stephanie Crosland-Goss.
Guests were encouraged to bring their phones and earphones/pods for a more immersive experience. Bringing their stories to life, artworks will have an accompanying commentary recorded by the artist.
Read below for my transcript From the event
Hi, my name is Shumaiya Khan. I’m a contemporary abstract painter and writer. I work with acrylic, charcoal and chalk mediums across paper and canvas surfaces, ranging in different sizes, however, the bigger the better usually, although I do love the intimate moments a smaller piece creates.
My works are ethereal in nature, drawing inspiration from spiritual and philosophical experiences and debate, with ever so slightly cosmic and renaissance era references. It would be misleading not to mention an overall feeling of romance I paint into my pieces.
Although art has always been a part of my life, my focus for the prior 10yrs before resuming my practice in May 2020, were my art direction and branding roles within fashion, homeware and beauty.
My initial paintings produced during the early stages of the global pandemic were centred around myself, taking into context, changes in personal circumstance, female identity, interpersonal relationships and exploration of a true self expression. A few months on, I started pairing a few of my pieces with poetry which today can often be found on the backs of canvases. The way that I saw this was abstract words for abstract paintings. I knew I had to start explaining to myself, what I saw in my pieces and how they made me feel, making my whole process one which is both self reflective and meditative.
I feel my practice really started situating itself over the past year when I grew into my own pillars of belief and now my works contain discourse about spirituality, physics in the form of relativity, and metaphysical storytelling. Therefore, today my work is less about how I experience life in an individual or isolated way, but more so about how my experience exists within a larger network regardless of physical parameters such as distance or linear measures, such as time.
‘In Sickness and In Health’, 2023. Acrylic, charcoal and chalk on cotton canvas. 120 x 120cm
The works which are on display today were produced roughly 6 months apart where we can see this transition of focus. In Sickness an in Health, painted in the second half of 2022, is a story of 2 parts.
The overarching theme of this story speaks of ourselves being the centre of a debate, where you can not disregard less desirable or familiar parts of the self, sometimes at the request of others. We humans exist as a whole, and only grow when we start to accept our shadows not only as a native aspect of us, but as one which can help us self actualise.
The front of the canvas houses the majority of the paint. The brushwork feels calm, symbolising movement in water, duskier blues, the occasional surprising built up texture and a full covered canvas. All aspects that quite typical, and maybe even expected of my pieces from last year.
The back of this canvas however tells a different story, this side usually contains a poem or some kind of prose, is covered in a sparse, raw, faster paced painting - synonymous with pieces which I’d started exploring in 2021 and then for a few reasons stunted this growth. This work in many ways was the kind of work I craved to produce, just to show up, unedited. but this was a conversation I had to have with myself, and the question needing to be answered on how to bring 2 parts together.
‘Two Hundred Thousand Leaves For The Forest Floor’, 2023. Acrylic and charcoal on cotton canvas. 120 x 140cm.
’Two Hundred Thousand Leaves for the Forest Floor’ painted earlier this year, is a follow on from ‘Forest’ which was produced in August of 2020. A paper piece which is currently available via Interrupted Art. 200,000 leaves, is part of my recent body of work from the series ‘the longest Marriage’ - which homes in on internal dialogue, and evaluates the relationship of who you once were and what remains and what has since grown. Some may call this an ego or spiritual death.
The challenge that occurred when creating this piece was one of comparison and nostalgia. I kept looking at its predecessor ‘Forest’ thinking firstly how much I love every part of that work, but secondly, knowing there was so much of that work which could never be painted in the same way again. Really brining home how much I had changed as a painter, artist, a philosopher. I found it hard to second guess how I was making this piece, and really understanding Two Hundred Thousand Leaves has its own deserved space.
In 2022, works contained colours often identifiable with space, cooler blues, vivid sparks of red, this optimistic into the unknown, to match astrological themes and to think beyond our worlds elements.
Now however, with the use of greens, hints of yellows and deeper black tones which demand attention; found in organic matter such as plants and lakes within their own ecosystems throughout their lifecycle; there’s a sense of reuniting with the earth and reconciling with our realities. The brushwork is bolder, faster and less forced, varying in sizes to build up dimension, with texture which has naturally formed from built up paint. Almost emphasising the metaphor of falling leaves onto the forest floor of which they once existed. Making way for a rebirth.
The poem which is paired with this piece is as follows:
A tree falls at speed
Two hundred thousand leaves
Cut into the forest ground
I make no sound
We drift quietly
We whisper secrets
And sweet nothings
Our names were etched
I ran through this forest
You were my leaves
This tree was mine
Thank you for listening.
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