Do Not Get On Skin or Clothing V

"Tazeen Qayyum's playful yet ominous cockroach motif slyly invites the viewer to be both giant in front of her delicate brushstrokes, and overwhelmed by their political bite. Simultaneously compelling and repulsive, the cockroach functions as socio-political metonym rather than metaphor, standing in for the eradication of human bodies and of cultural difference in our current war-time environment. The museum/gallery display is also on trial as the cockroach/human body is splayed open for investigation like entomological specimens, produced as signs of social knowledge." (K. Phillips, Gendering Detail: Exhibition of Contemporary Miniature Paintings, South Asian Gallery of Art, Toronto, May 2006, illustrated, unpaginated)