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Lot Essay
Naiza Khan embarked on a series of painting, drawing and sculpture that began as a strategy to explore the emotional and social contexts of the female form. This is especially poignant within the milieu of social attitudes of a paternalistic and authoritarian role of the state in Pakistan.
"Khan's symbolic use of the female silhouette explores the dualities of touch and concealment by isolating the body from the woman; from standpoints of both the Eastern, Islamic, and the Western traditions. She questions society's preordained suppression of this topic, and has developed a language across a range of media, utilizing themes of containment and sensuality with the image of corsets and nightdresses. Khan achieves a striking balance between feminine strength, as seen in her notably assertive series Armour - Corset, 2007 in galvanized steel, and a more spiritual territory of mystery in drawings such as Restore the Boundaries II, 2007 marked with a delicately seductive, floating nightdress. By enveloping the body with select materials, Khan speaks of protection and defence, alongside tiers of taboos and the unattainable that require peeling away." (F. Rahim Ismail, Figurative Pakistan, Aicon Gallery, London, 2007, unpaginated).
"Khan's symbolic use of the female silhouette explores the dualities of touch and concealment by isolating the body from the woman; from standpoints of both the Eastern, Islamic, and the Western traditions. She questions society's preordained suppression of this topic, and has developed a language across a range of media, utilizing themes of containment and sensuality with the image of corsets and nightdresses. Khan achieves a striking balance between feminine strength, as seen in her notably assertive series Armour - Corset, 2007 in galvanized steel, and a more spiritual territory of mystery in drawings such as Restore the Boundaries II, 2007 marked with a delicately seductive, floating nightdress. By enveloping the body with select materials, Khan speaks of protection and defence, alongside tiers of taboos and the unattainable that require peeling away." (F. Rahim Ismail, Figurative Pakistan, Aicon Gallery, London, 2007, unpaginated).