The Brooklyn-based Pakistani artist’s autobiographical installations speak of gender disparities, most of which she experienced as a child growing up in patriarchal Pakistan – as the fourth daughter born to a family that desperately wanted a boy. In My Birth Will Take Place a Thousand Times, No Matter How You Celebrate It (2000), Chishti used old quilts from her family to construct a group of lamenting women. Crows though, are her favourite motif, and she makes the birds using dried grass, fabric and steel. “Crows have always been part of my work; I like them. I consider them companions and their presence is very comforting to me. In my installations, they sometimes appear as harbingers of guests but mostly, they symbolise the ability to survive even in the most challenging conditions.”
Crows (pictured above) is part of the group show ‘Degenerate’, on till June 14 at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi. Vadehraart.com. To see her past works flip through the gallery above
By Sophia Ann French June 5th, 2014
