Dania Sabri

My subject matter is people – their everyday lives, inhabited societies and communities, and ideologies - which I express through portraiture. Shafaq is based on a photograph of my mother in her late teens to early twenties. I incorporate the history and materiality of the original photograph through painterly marks dashed over the work’s surface, as well as vignetting. As for my mother – with her all-white shalwar-kameez (traditional South Asian suit), red bindi, pearl necklace, and silver bangles catching the light – she epitomises youth and beauty. The walls around her are bare with the exception of a clock and a mirror, which evokes the passing of time and represents a literal and metaphorical reflection of my mother. I wanted to explore who she was prior to motherhood.

Dania Sabri is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice revolves around themes of women, community, politics, and religious extremism. Her ongoing work centers around the precarious diaspora of Pakistan’s Ahmadi Muslim community. By asking questions about identity and exile, the artist weighs Pakistan's complicated history with the West. Their paintings range from political symbolism to re-imagined family portraits, where memory becomes a form of inheritance. Dania began their practice through painting and writing. She has since expanded her work to sculpture, video, and design.