Time Lapse: Sadia Salim shares her journey through time and space

Travel Advisory attempts to shed light on the Pakistan that is not shown by the media.

KARACHI: “My artwork is based on the experiences that I have encountered on my journey through different spaces and times,” explained artist Sadia Salim.

She was speaking about her latest exhibition of works, titled ‘Time Lapse’, being held at the Koel Gallery, on Tuesday. Speaking to Nafisa Rizvi on the inspiration behind her work, Salim said that there was no continuity or conformity in the theme and that it was the amalgamation of six years’ worth of ideas. “My works are open to interpretation and deliberation,” she smiled.



“The title, Mechanical Cardiogram, responded to me as a human being, and any art that responds to you on a personal level is the best form of art,” said Rizvi. She was speaking about a collection of stained glass ceramics of varying sizes. “There is more to an object than what is seen by the naked eye,” claimed Salim. Speaking of the ceramics she explained that, “This is a language I have command over and I use it the same way people use paintings”.

Each piece of art corresponded to a different time in Salim’s life and had a different message. “The one constant idea that I have is that everything is different or not connected. There is no uniform continuous theme in any of my works. I have used ceramics, video and text - all very different mediums,” said Salim.

Speaking of another piece, Every Home Has An Expiry Date, Salim explained that nature was more transient in the natural environment than in planned cities. “It is mainly about birds that have flown away and abandoned their nests. We place so much importance on returning to our homes and I don’t understand why that idea is so ingrained,” said Salim.

“I am a ceramist so experimenting with material and challenging myself in the process is very important,” she explained regarding one of her works which comprised ceramic origami birds. “It took a while for me to figure out how to create them successfully,” said Salim, regarding the process of turning the paper birds into ceramic pieces.



Other interesting exhibits at the event included light boxes and a video about people who have been to or lived in Pakistan but are not of Pakistani origin. The piece was titled Travel Advisory. “I had the idea of creating a parallel narrative to the news [of Pakistan] in the media,” explained Salim.

The light boxes included handwritten notes taken from the recorded conversations she had with people, emails or travel blogs on Pakistan.

“I did a lot of research, read a lot of newspapers for this particular piece. I discovered that around 95% of the coverage of Pakistan was negative, in both Pakistani and American newspapers. I wanted to explore the idea of sensationalism and break stereotypes,” she explained.

“There is a distinctive thread of Sadia’s personality and travels in her work. The heart of the artist is really in the exhibits when you can relate to the pieces and get to know her very well from her works,” commented Rizvi. The exhibition runs till March 3.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2014.