Unweaving Myself

Asma Sultana

A Space Windows

January 25 – March 9, 2019

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My work is autobiographical; it shows the complexity of modern life and life of an immigrant. The main theme of my work revolves around the nature of physical and emotional displacement. I examine the things that I have lost and were deprived of, which have shifted my perspective in recreating my identity. Alienation, exile, migration, emptiness, and void left by the lost dreams and recurrent nightmares are some of the ingredients of my alchemy: the transmutation of losses in my artistic practice – my own philosopher’s stone.

I use materials that are part of my physical self. I use my own hair as a thread to stitch baby dresses, adult attire, or blankets in order to give them an intimate touch. Embroidery is deeply rooted in the tradition of Bangladesh. With a view to deconstruct its power of narration, I have introduced fabric with embroidery into my art, but instead of the thread, I began to use my hair and I have also started to use my fingerprints as a drawing tool. I use all these elements in a process to explore my identity and also to create an unbreakable bridge of ownership with an inseparable part of myself.  In this relentless struggle, I seek my own identity.

 

Biographies

Asma Sultana is a Bangladeshi-born British freelance
visual artist currently living and working in Canada. After earning a
Bachelors in Drawing and Painting from Bangladesh, she was trained in London
and Toronto in Fine Arts and Art History. Sultana organized several solo
exhibitions and participated in many group exhibitions in Canada, England,
India, and Bangladesh. She uses the unique signature of her body to explore
identity in time and place.