AYESHA MARIAM DURRANI | CHINKS IN THE ARMOUR

Acquired from Taseer Art Gallery, Lahore, 2012

‘[The] silhouettes [of Ayesha Durrani] are faceless and cushioned with scarlet cabbage roses, domestic flowers painting the canvas a deep, spiraled blood red, rendering the female essence both anonymous and universal.’ (F. Bhutto, ‘Operating Above the Law’, ArtAsiaPacific, Issue 66, November/December 2009, p. 57)

Born in 1976 in Peshawar, Pakistani contemporary artist Ayesha Durrani lives and works in Lahore. In 2003, she completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts – with a major in Miniature Painting – from the city’s National College of Arts. Durrani’s vibrant work explores the theme of female oppression and uses two key motifs: the red rose and the faceless mannequin. The roses in Durrani’s paintings address the flaws of the flower’s historic association with women: “Are roses only for decoration? We wrench petals so cruelly both for a bride or for a corpse, the same way. Women too are supposedly precious, but we get crushed.” (A. Durrani quoted in S. Vora, ‘Ayesha Durrani: The girl next door’, 15 July 2009,  https://www.asianart.com/articles/vora/durrani/index.html) Durrani’s use of the mannequin is similarly charged: the silent, immobile nature of what is, in effect, a dummy speaks to the societal control of women both at home in Pakistan and more generally. “The world decides who she is, what she is, what she is allowed to know, where she is allowed to go.” (ibid)

Durrani has exhibited her work in solo and group shows in Pakistan and India, and further afield, in London, New York, Dubai, Fukuoka and Hong Kong.