Artist Statement

My work explores the cultural and racial melancholy of my identity as the daughter of immigrants from Pakistan and Guatemala. Through paintings and drawings, I explore objects, vessels, and symbols from my parents’ homelands to delve into the intersections of identity, culture, and history. Engaging in traditions of historical still life, the work focuses on compositions to render objects that define who we are and where we come from. The objects and flowers within the still life reflect time, memory, and location and serve as vessels of exchange, passing on cultural representations, familial stories, and personal identities across generations. The act of reconciling these histories reflects a search for balance between three distinct yet intertwined cultural worlds, each with its own traditions, values, and struggles impacted by colonial legacies and imperialist structures to explore the potentials of self and identity. In my paintings, I explore this reconciliation through the careful juxtaposition of symbols and the spatial relationships between objects, reflecting the tension and harmony between multiple cultures. Throughout my works, flowers negotiate between where they come from and where they are placed. For me, flowers become figurative representations that carry agency, beauty, and longing but they can also be displaced and disconnected. The objects floating within black spaces in my work visually reflect the distances—both physical and emotional—that exist between cultures, histories, and identities. In this way, my work becomes a space for connection and conversation, where memory, migration, and identity intersect, offering a visual expression of the ongoing journey towards belonging.