As an immigrant to Canada from Pakistan, I am fascinated by the intersections of culture, place and faith in personal and group identity formation.  I use sculpture to express and explore identity, my own and that of others, as well as to invite the audience into dialogue on who we are, how we are and why we are. 

     I use sculpture to re-envision cultural and religious interchange three-dimensionally.  As a Muslim immigrant of colour, my daily experiences define and calibrate my self-image.  Through my artwork, I explore perceptions of similarity and difference.  A simple deconstruction makes so many experiences from so many cultures resemble each other.  We have complex identities in a shifting world.  My artwork is a creative meditation on a shared human condition and the particularities of each of our unique experiences. 

     I use a variety of media in my work, though I most often choose cardboard, newspaper and masking tape to convey my ideas.  These materials best capture many common experiences of migration, from the sense of impermanence as one struggles to find home, to a perceived lack of worth as one struggles to demonstrate their value in a new society.  Through sculpture, I take materials that are often discarded or undervalued and uncover their beauty and power to bring people together.  I also prefer these materials because of their accessibility and commonness, widening the possibilities of what art can be and who can access it both as a producer and consumer.    

     When I first began making art as a newcomer to Canada, my work focused primarily on bridging two cultures, identities and languages.  Now, having lived in Canada for almost as long as Pakistan, my focus has turned to weaving those disparate parts together to create a sense of wholeness. I move from a sense of disconnect and multiple selves to creating a whole self out of many complex elements.  As I continue to explore identity through sculpture, my experience has shifted from a sense of feeling lost to having found something, and my work now examines what it is and who I am that has been found.