Strategies of Selves-III
Digital print on paper
30×90 cm
2013
Available
In her paintings Nusra Latif Qureshi engages visual stereotypes- or associations of these to emphasize and enhance certain points in her constructed narrative about historical misrepresentations, erasures and postcolonial situations. In the photos or photo-pictures she has produced for the project Strategies of Selves, Qureshi investigates ideas of self-perception and identity – she has attempted to dissociate with historical/political narratives and avoid associations beyond the personal (albeit personal being always political) experiences. This is achieved partly by engaging in the specifics of cultural markers in most obvious and explicit forms – attire, jewellery and make-up. By putting on these items of cultural specificity – though not of much historical significance and no clear meaning – Qureshi has aimed at crafting a shifting, ambiguous and indeterminate identity or areas of multiple identities.
In some images, she uses a white mask- with all its baggage of social and post-colonial associations. Photography lends really well to the formation and staging of a narrative that focuses – and in this work through technique – unfocuses the idea of a singular identity. The aim of these photo-pictures is to address the absurdity of this perception that a single, formative identity must define a person. Qureshi stages these photo-pictures in a space where self-perception conjoins, dissects, separates and faces the perceptions of the other/s.
Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Qureshi has a BFA from the National College of Arts, Lahore and a MFA from the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne. She lives and works in Melbourne, Australia.
Photo Credits | Nusra Latif Qureshi