Now based in London, Lahore-born Faiza Butt is considered one of Pakistan's most important contemporary artists. She talks to TFT about her secular upbringing, her inspirational teachers at the National College of Arts, and the bold new direction her work is taking
TFT: Having grown up in a Kashmiri family in Lahore, you chose to be an artist. Was this a difficult choice to make? What was your family’s response?
Faiza Butt: I was fortunate to be born in a household that took pride in cultural identity (rather than a religious or nationalistic one). So yes, we were Kashmiris, inbred as many generations back as it could be orally traced. However, contrary to what is generally assumed about Kashmiri households, I was raised with a great deal of cultural wealth. My late father was a professor of literature, hence one of my role models had his nose in a book all through my developmental years. There were countless journals and magazines that came through the letterbox every month. I had read many classic novels by the age of 13, and the quest for knowledge was celebrated in our house with fervor. Part of my luck was that my household was non-conformist, and the adults were always demystifying religiosity for me, which I am eternally grateful for. Yet I am a product of the Zia era, a time when the unholy Thatcher-Reagan alliance calculatedly funded and armed the right-wing Islamist movement in South Asia to cap Russian advancement in Afghanistan. I witnessed General Zia’s corruption of a fairly moderate culture in Pakistan, with developments like the Hudood Ordinance defining the value system of that society. Being an intellectual, my father resisted this and we had our fair share of suffering. But we remained who we were (despite the hijab being introduced in my catholic school’s uniform – I can never forget or forgive that). No one in my house was born-again. No one developed the appetite for the endless religious programs on TV (punctuated by a censored yet consistent CNN). And we continued to eroticise education and food as thoroughbred Kashmiris do!
Get Out of My Dreams
[quote]"I witnessed General Zia's corruption of a fairly moderate culture in Pakistan"[/quote]
TFT:You were in a strikingly fertile class at the National College of Arts in the early 90s: your contemporaries included Shahzia Sikandar, Rashid Rana and Imran Qureshi. What role do you think the NCA played in your formation as an artist? What were the most important things it taught you?
Faiza Butt: It is uncanny how extraordinary were my years at the NCA (my contemporaries, as you have identified, are art giants in international circuits). Somehow an energy was generated by the coming together of all those minds. But I must mention here that it was our mentors and tutors who played a vital role in nurturing that talent. Zahoor-ul-Ikhlaq, Salima Hashmi and Naazish Attaullah in particular provided us with information, guidance and materials that brought the best out of us. I feel fortunate that I was taught by Professor Salima Hashmi; her pivotal role remains unquestionable in what is defined as the contemporary art scene in Pakistan. As for the NCA as an institution, I feel the place is a time capsule from the future, a place always ahead of its time, acting as a bridge that connects an insular society to the wider world.
"I feel fortunate that I was taught by Professor Salima Hashmi"
[quote]"The NCA is a time capsule from the future"[/quote]
TFT: You have said that your decision to make drawings with ink pens was a reaction to the large-scale “spectacles” you encountered at the Slade School of Art in London. What is this culture of spectacles? What does it value, who are its stars?
FB: You could say my method is reactionary: I developed that technique while at the Slade School of Art (where echoes of the New York school of painting still ring strong). I resisted oil paints and canvases as dominant studio materials, and chose instead to work with water and paper (as traditionally used in the East). It was my way of asserting the history of my region in my practise. We mustn’t forget that the very large-scale sculptural physical works of art made by the likes of Anish Kapoor, Jeff Koons and Donald Judd are a natural progression of events that followed the industrial revolution. I do find it amusing when I see artists in Pakistan aping those models. Our society has not gone through that “renaissance” yet. (Our progression may be erratic but it begets some very interesting problems – the perfect hotbed for an artist’s imagination.) Anyway, my points of view were resisted by a fairly conservative Slade faculty at first, but my research and ideas continued to be manifested in my second year of MA, and I was finally awarded a distinction on my final result – an award rarely dished out to a foreign student.
[quote]"I feel the human condition is under-discussed in Pakistani art"[/quote]
TFT: You have worked in recent years with prickly themes such as masculinity, social violence and mindless consumption, often using caustic humor and irony to pack your punch. Have you always tried to provoke and challenge with your art, or is this a recent development?
FB: It’s my moral stance on the purpose of art-making. Why do we make works of art at all? What is the impetus? I believe artists are social commentators. They discuss, support and celebrate the finer details that can be invisible to others. I don’t believe art should make anyone comfortable. I never have. My works have always addressed what I find challenging in my immediate surroundings. The grit in my work is reflective of the savage times we live in. Yet it’s elementary to my practise that the codes and symbols in my work hold a universal appeal and communicate beyond geographical boundaries. At the same time, I feel the human condition – with its aspects of human sexuality, age and emotional virtue – is under-discussed in Pakistani art. I believe if we raise questions about what makes us human, it’ll be the most potent tool at our disposal to connect with the wider, global tribe of humanity.
A recent work
Get out of my Dreams II
[quote]"Living abroad has sharpened my senses"[/quote]
TFT: You have lived and worked in England for many years now. Yet your work continues to engage with Pakistan. What is this like? Do you feel divided, engage, inspired, helpless?
FB: I have been based in the UK for nearly two decades now. Yet I don’t feel British or English. It’s not a personal choice but an outcome of the status quo. The drive for the ‘migrant’ to assimilate remains strong, but I remain a Pakistani-Kashmiri based abroad. (I often tick boxes on official papers in the UK that clearly box me in for who I am!) The advantage is that I have a ringside view of issues and anxieties that I often feel Pakistanis living in Pakistan are de-sensitised to. It amuses me to see how anxious Pakistani society is becoming about lifestyles that reach them as remote knowledge (unchartered information) through the hyper-connectivity of the Internet. Living abroad has sharpened my senses in a way that perhaps being solidly based in Pakistan might not have done. My work is reflective of that.
Stars and Superstars
TFT: The works in your latest show, ‘The Image of an Image’, are noisy and fevered but also encourage reflection on the activities (protests, celebrations, trash production and collection) that constitute our crazy present. What are the personal experiences behind these works?
FB: ‘The Image of an Image’ addresses the core values of my concepts. My practise consistently discusses the power of the journalistic image. Whether it’s about propaganda, political opinions, consumerist marketing, cross-cultural issues or gender polemics, processed images influence us far more readily and with much more persuasion than the written word. I scavenge for these images and use them as a starting point to a bigger thought. The works are all highly personal as they are products of my conceptual prism. They project my opinions about the ever-divided world and our failings as humans. Things like food, electronics, surgical tools, adult toys, etc. heavily feature in most of these works; the reference to consumerism and global unrest underpins my conceptual drive.
TFT: Give us a forecast, Faiza! Who are Pakistan’s most promising young artists?
FB: It’s incredible, the talent that is generated by schools such as Beaconhouse University and NCA. It’s very hard to choose favourites but there are a few young artists in Pakistan that I feel very excited about. Please look up Irfan Hasan, Rabia Hassan, Abdullah Qureshi, Salman Toor, Aisha Abid Hussain and Mehreen Murtaza. All of them are fearless in expressing the major concerns of our times and determined to take the Pakistani contemporary discourse forwards. (BTW my favourite word is freedom.)
‘The Image of an Image’ was on at Karachi’s Canvas Gallery until August 14th
