Huma Mulji Explained

Huma Mulji
Birth Place:Karachi, Pakistan
Nationality:Pakistani
Occupation:Visual artist
Awards:Abraaj Capital Art Prize (2013)

Huma Mulji (born 1970 in Karachi) is a Pakistani contemporary artist.[1] Her works are in the collections of the Saatchi Gallery, London and the Asia Society Museum.[2] [3] [4] She received the Abraaj Capital Art Prize in 2013.[5]

Life

Huma Mulji was born in 1970 in Karachi, Pakistan. In 1995, she completed a BFA at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi, Pakistan, and in 2010, received an MFA from Transart Institute in Berlin, Germany.[6] [7] [8]

From 2003 to 2015, she was an associate professor at the School of Visual Arts, Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan.[9] In 2016, she was a fellow at the Terra Foundation for American Art.[10] She was Visiting Artist at the Goldsmiths' College, London, UK in 2015 to 2017. In 2017, Mulji received the Nigaah Art Award.[11]

She is currently Lecturer at the University of West of England, Bristol, UK,[12] and Lecturer, BA (Hons) Fine Art, at the Plymouth College of Art, UK.

Works

Mulji's artworks were exhibited at Art Dubai in UAE,[13] 10th Gwangju Biennale in Gwangju, South Korea,[14] [15] 56th Venice Biennale in Italy, Karachi Biennale 2017,[16] in Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art in Spain,[17] Asia Society Museum in New York,[18] Saatchi Gallery in UK[19] and Project 88 in Mumbai, India.[20] Her solo exhibitions include High Rise, in Elementa Gallery, Dubai, UAE in 2009,[21] Crystal Pallace and Other Follies in Rothas Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan in 2010, Twilight in Project 88, Mumbai, India in 2011,[22] and A Country of Last Things in Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan in 2016.[23]

Mulji's work characterizes how interpretations of culture, context, and cognition are held in creative tension. Drawing on the geography of visual culture that is part of her South Asian heritage, she opens up the politics of place,[24] engaging with the absurdities of existence and our casual acceptance of all that surrounds us.[25] The state between two things is continuously played out in Mulji's work, which places itself somewhere between sculpture and painting, photography and installation.[26] The city, the everyday and the overlooked all serve as subjects in these deliberately awkward artworks.[27]

Her sculptural installation Arabian Delight (2008) refers to the aspects of economic migration, to the anticipations of the migrants and corresponding reality. The piece consists of a taxidermy camel stuffed into a suitcase and addresses also the Arabization of Pakistan.[28] It was presented at Art Dubai in 2008, but was removed after a few days to avoid a controversial topic. The removal, however, brought even more publicity to the artwork.[29] The piece was bought by Charles Saatchi and became part of the collection of the Saatchi Gallery.

The title of her installation Ode to a Lamppost That Got Accidentally Destroyed in the Enthusiastic Widening of Canal Bank Road (2011–2017), exhibited at the Karachi Biennale 2017 (at Pioneer Book Store), refers to a central road in Lahore where Mulji lived. Its widening caused protests. This artwork comments heavy development that becomes obsolete when the priorities shift.[30] During the Biennale, this work raised controversy.[31] Mulji placed the pole so that it was difficult to navigate in the space. Aziz Sohail noted that it was Mulji's point to make a parallel to social inequality and to how the life of people is affected during the developmental projects. Hamna Zubair wrote:

References

  1. Book: Salima . Hashmi . Hanging fire : Contemporary Art from Pakistan . 2009 . Asia Society Museum . 978-0-300-15418-4 . New York . 317471831 . 108.
  2. Web site: Diana . Eid . Taxidermy Camel + Oversized Suitcase = Controversial Art . Inventorspot.com . 13 July 2020.
  3. Web site: Saatchi Gallery . Artnet.com . 13 July 2020.
  4. Web site: Huma Mulji . museum.asiasociety.org . Asia Society . 13 July 2020.
  5. Web site: The Abraaj Capital Art Prize 2013 winners announced. e-flux.com . 29 August 2012 . 7 July 2020.
  6. Web site: Mirza . Quddus . Between artists and their artwork . The News on Sunday . 27 April 2020 . 13 October 2019.
  7. Web site: Huma Mulji . Vaslart.org . Vasl Artists' Association . 7 July 2020.
  8. Web site: Huma Mulji . Plymouthart.ac.uk . 13 July 2020.
  9. Web site: Discussion: International Artist Residencies at Spikes Island in Bristol on 9 February 2017 . 365bristol.com . 9 February 2017 . 18 July 2020.
  10. Web site: Terra Foundation Fellows . 13 July 2020 . Terra Foundation for American Art.
  11. Web site: Nigaah Art Awards – Celebrating Pakistani art . Aurora . 12 September 2017 . 13 July 2020.
  12. Web site: Ms Huma Mulji . UWE Bristol . 13 July 2020.
  13. Book: Baler, Pablo. The Next Thing Art in the Twenty-First Century. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. 2015. 978-1-61147-811-2. 53–66.
  14. Web site: Huma Mulji . Kunstaspekte.art . 8 July 2020 .
  15. Web site: Jason . Farago . Gwangju Biennale: an aggressive exhibition that electrifies South Korea . . 9 September 2014. 8 July 2020 .
  16. Web site: Witnessing from afar: making sense of the Karachi Biennale. 25 June 2020. 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. 9 December 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201209052840/http://www.4a.com.au/4a_papers_article/witnessing-afar-making-sense-karachi-biennale/. dead.
  17. Web site: In the Open or in Stealth : The Unruly Presence of an Intimate Future . 8 July 2020 . Macba.cat . Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona.
  18. Web site: Randy . Kennedy . Contradictions Remains Vital to Pakistan and Its Art . . 2 September 2009 . 18 July 2020 .
  19. Web site: Huma Mulji Exhibite dat the Saatchi Gallery . Saatchigallery.com . Saatchi Gallery . 18 July 2020 .
  20. Web site: Huma Mulji : Project 88 Exhibition . Project88.in . Project 88 . 18 July 2020 .
  21. Web site: Huma Mulji: High Rise . 8 July 2020 . Universes.art . Universes in Universe . June 2009.
  22. Web site: Rachel . Murray . Huma Mulji's Suspension in Twilight . 19 December 2011 . 7 July 2020.
  23. Web site: Huma Mulji . Kbcuratorial.com . Karachi Biennale 2017 . 8 July 2020.
  24. Book: Sullivan, Graeme, 1951-. Art practice as research : inquiry in visual arts. 2010. Sage Publications. 978-1-4129-7451-6. 2nd. Thousand Oaks [Calif.]. 351322811.
  25. Book: Schonfeld, Roger C., 1977-. JSTOR : a history. 2003. Princeton University Press. 978-1-4008-4311-4. Princeton. 777375664.
  26. Book: Sneden, Eleanor Antoinette. 2011-10-31. Oxford University Press. Benezit Dictionary of Artists. 10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00171338.
  27. Web site: Huma Mulji. 2020-08-04. Karachi Biennale 2017. en.
  28. Web site: HUMA MULJI, Arabian Delight (and details) . 13 July 2020.
  29. Book: Graeme . Sullivan . Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in Visual Arts . 2010 . SAGE . 978-1-4129-7451-6 . 351322811 . 19.
  30. Web site: Aziz . Sohail . Witnessing from afar: making sense of the Karachi Biennale . 4a.com.au . Centre for Contemporary Asian Art . 8 July 2020 . 9 December 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201209052840/http://www.4a.com.au/4a_papers_article/witnessing-afar-making-sense-karachi-biennale/ . dead .
  31. Web site: Hamna . Zubair . An exhibit at the Karachi Biennale has sparked an intense debate about art and elitism . scroll.in . 6 November 2017 . 8 July 2020.

Bibliography

External links

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