Mirror Mirror On the Wall
Event, drawings (graphite on paper), furniture & mirror
Each Drawing: 3×6 feet approx. Installation: variable
2012
Owned by the artist
Art, and my self – just like any thing else – exists when it is looked upon or looked through, seen, or heard, or felt, or tasted, or smelt – experienced by others. It is, in its materiality, the receptacle that is occupied by the histories, past and present, nature and realities of its existence. Art, postmodernity, contemporaneity, seems to be a reflection of itself; it is self-critical, self-referential, and, self-reflective. It sees itself in its surroundings, and in what lies behind – what is in front and what is behind – in one instant. But, this instant is ever changing, incessantly singular, and thus plural in its singularities…
This project conflates the two concerns: The self – or body – stands here for art. I stood in front of a mirror and drew myself repeatedly, life-size and devoid of any thing that would be in excess of, or to, the body. The only way for me to see my body in my studio was to look upon it in a mirror. I was the subject and the object, simultaneously.
The subject, the artist, becomes the object, and the viewer the artist, i.e. the subject. The viewer becomes the viewed… And these roles shift constantly. The drawings that become the ultimate ‘objects’, are the residue of the entire process, action, and, thought.
Saira Sheikh is a Fulbright Scholar who did her Ed.M in Art and Art Education, from Columbia University, New York in 2009. She did her BFA from National College of Arts in Miniature Painting and Sculpture. She has won the Myers Art Prize at Columbia University, Shakir Ali Award, Sir Percy Brown Award and Haji Sharif Award from the National College of Arts.