118-119 / 188
116
NOVEMBER 2016 | THE TIES THAT BIND
117
Faiza Butt states: “The inspiration for my work
stems directly frommy sense of identity (gender
and cultural) and the times we live in. I create
work by chancing upon potent journalistic
images, text, encounters, and experiences, as I
conduct my affairs as an artist, a mother, and
a woman. My work reflects my varied cross-
cultural experiences and is a reflection on the
instability and uncertainty of our time.”
Born in Lahore in 1973, London-based artist
Butt received a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art
fromthe National College of Arts in Lahore, and
a Master’s Degree in Painting from the Slade
School of Fine Art. Her work is a confluence
of current issues in Pakistan and the West. She
often employs
pardakht
, a pointillist technique
seen in Mughal miniature paintings, to explore
themes focussing on gender, identity and
politics in Pakistan, while juxtaposing imagery
from Western culture to situate her work in a
broader context.
The present lot, devised as a triptych, offers
a broad view of issues central to Butt’s work.
Her recent paintings “are representations of
Pakistani men in different roles—as muscled
pehlwans
or wrestlers, Taliban with long beards
and kaffiyeh, or ordinary men with doleful eyes.
It is anattempt to shift thegaze fromthewoman
as an objectified icon of desire and a testimony
to the patriarchal, male-dominated... society
that pervades much of the country. Another
significant element in Faiza Butt’s works is
the depiction of pop culture as detritus, rich
creamy foods, watches and running shoes, milk
cartons and medicines, all jumbled in a mass
of consumerism creating a pastiche of ordinary
everyday life.” (Salima Hashmi ed.,
The Eye Still
Seeks: Pakistani Contemporary Art
, Gurgaon:
Penguin Books India, 2015, pp. 101 – 102) Butt
uses dark blots and dripping paint against this
pastiche to make a social commentary.
102
FAIZA BUTT
(b. 1973)
God's best
2010
Mixed media on mylar
40.25 x 78.75 in (102.2 x 200 cm)
$ 15,155 - 22,730
Rs 10,00,000 - 15,00,000
(Triptych)
PROVENANCE:
Rohtas Gallery, Pakistan
Private Collection, West India
EXHIBITED:
Faiza Butt: Pehlwan
, London: Grosvenor Vadehra, 13-30 October 2010
PUBLISHED:
Faiza Butt: Pehlwan
, London: Grosvenor Vadehra, 2010, pp. 4-5