SHARING AN ARTIST’S VIEWPOINT | SORAYA SIKANDAR IN | AT | AND AROUND

Text: Marjorie Hussain

Photographs

“My work addresses the issues of form and the relationship between line, shape and colour. I am interested in mark making and its relationship with negative space, and exploring media (traditional and three-dimensional) to create the effect of an intervention into a picturesque world. Through my work, I explore fundamental questions. What does it mean to be human? What is an object? What is a creature? And ultimately how do we define and interpret our world. Recurring themes in my work suggest location, place, gender, identity, and nationally – through direct or subtle references to memory, association and anthropomorphic forms. The distinction between drawing, painting-into-sculpture and sculptural installations are blurred, as objects transfigure one into another, installed in everyday settings to create a human interaction with transformed objects”. (Soraya Sikandar, 2013)

Soraya Sikander is a young artist with an extensive experience of art practice to her credit. She initially completed one year at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture Karachi, before joining Beacon House National University, Lahore.

After graduating in 2008 her excitement with art and the desire to explore ways to express her inner feelings led her to practice a variety of media including, painting, woodblock carving, silkscreen prints and video. She is a young artist in unusual circumstances as part owner and curator of the family run Unicorn Gallery. Karachi and the responsibilities involved. Her time is divided between her practicing her art and planning various programmes to be mounted at the gallery, including lectures, book launches and art festivals as well as exhibitions.