Bani Abidi
| Born |
1971 Karachi, Islamic Republic of Pakistan |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Pakistani |
| Workplace | Karachi, New Delhi & Berlin |
| Known for | Photography art and video art |
| Years active | 2003 - Present |
| Academic awards |
MFA, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, U.S. (1999) BFA, National College of Arts, Pakistan (1994) |
Bani Abidi (born 1971) is a female Pakistani contemporary artist. She has held numerous exhibitions and her works focused on political issues. She uses both photography and videos to make comments and critics on current politics and culture.
In 1994, she was awarded a BFA in painting and printmaking from National College of Arts, Pakistan. In 1999, she was awarded a MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the United States of America. From 2000 to 2012, she completed four residencies programme in different institutions.
Bani started to join group exhibitions and screenings from 2003, and held her solo exhibitions and screenings from 2006. She has so far joined over 80 group exhibitions and screenings worldwide and held her solo exhibitions for 12 times.
Early life and Art Background
Abidi was born in Karachi, the capital of Pakistani province of Sindh, in 1971.[1][2] She lives in New Delhi and Karachi.[3] In 1994, she chose to study painting and printmaking, earning a Bachelor of Arts from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan.[2][4][5] From 1997 she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, completing a master's degree in 1999.[5] While attending the Art Institute, she developed a profound interest in cinematography. She incorporated films with her other practices of art to produce works that address issues with nationalism and post-colonialism, specifically India and Pakistan. Relations between India and Pakistan have been complex due to a number of historical and political events. Relations between the two states have been defined by the violent partition of British India in 1947,[6] the Kashmir conflict and the numerous military conflicts fought between the two nations.[7] Consequently, even though the two South Asian nations share linguistic, cultural, geographic, and economic links, their relationship has been plagued by hostility and suspicion. Her interests are drawn upon the lives of individuals that are affected by these disputes.[8]
Not only has she depicted subjects that deals with the historical events that occurred between India and Pakistan, she has created documentaries that portray the minority groups in Pakistan such as the Hindus, Christian and Zoroastrian—emerging into the twilight to briefly claim some space in a public sphere that is increasingly hostile to religious difference.[9]
Works and Experiences
Bani Abidi has shown her works in exhibitions and film festivals internationally and participated in numerous residency programs since 1996.[4] Films like Mangoes and Karachi—Series 1 display her compassion towards ideas and subject manners that often depict religious, social, and political commentary.
In 1999, her film Mangoes touches the lives of a Pakistani and Indian women who eat mangoes together. They share each stories about their childhood that heightened sense of nostalgia and nationalism that exists in the Indian and Pakistani Diaspora. These women stress the idea of a shared history, while they eat a delicious, fruity mango.[10]
For Karachi—Series 1 (2009), she photographed non-Muslim Pakistanis in the street at dusk during the holy month of Ramadan, when the metropolis is quiet as Muslims sit down to break their fast. Abidi renders visible the Hindu and Christian minorities, which together constitute less than five per cent of the population, acknowledging that the city is their home too by inviting them to carry out mundane domestic activities—reading a newspaper, ironing, arranging flowers—in public space.[8]
As she thought “Pakistan is actually only depicted in news media and almost never through film, literature or art”,[11] in 2000, she started working primarily in video[4] instead of just using photography to comment upon politics and culture. “I prefer to engage with things I may or may not find important at my own discretion, and feel a bit throttled by the world’s anxious curiosity about Pakistan. So I think I make a conscious effort to stay away from a flat definition of what is critical or political, both conceptually and visually.”[11] Although there were only few artists, especially female artists working with video and photography,[11] she believed it would succeed, “As for the media of video and photography, they are only now starting to be used by younger artists.”[11]
She also tried to participate in numerous residency programs between 2000-2012. In 2011/2012, she was the artist in Residence at DAAD Artists Residency in Berlin.[12]
| Residency programs[1] | |
|---|---|
| 2011 | DAAD Berliner Kunstler program, Berlin |
| 2005 | Fukuoka Artist Exchange Program, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum |
| 2000 | Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine |
| 2001 | Khoj International Artists Residency, Delhi |
She has shown a lot of her works in different exhibitions, which proved that her works was evocative to the people, both in politics and culture.
| Solo Exhibitions[1] | |
|---|---|
| 2012 | Then it was moulded anew, Experimenter Gallery, Kolkata
Frame – Experimenter Gallery, Frieze Art Fair, London |
| 2011 | Bani Abidi - Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle |
| 2010 | Bani Abidi - Section Yellow, Project 88, Mumbai
Bani Abidi – Karachi, V.M Art Gallery, Karachi Bani Abidi – Karachi, Green Cardamom, London |
| 2008 | Standing Still Standing Still Standing: Video and Prints by Bani Abidi, Green Cardamom, London
Bani Abidi – Recent Works, Gallery SKE, Bangalore |
| 2007 | The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing, Gallery TPW, Toronto |
| 2006 | Shan Pipe Band Learns the Star Spangled Banner, Oberwelt, Stuttgart,
The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing, V. M Art Gallery, Karachi Shan Pipe Band Learns the Star Spangled Banner, Haines Gallery, San Francisco |
| Group Exhibitions and Screenings[1] | |
|---|---|
| 2014 | In Plain Sight, Smack Mellon, New York
2nd CAFAM Biennial, Beijing |
| 2013 | Only to melt, trustingly, without reproach- Skuc Gallery, Ljubljana
Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space – Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham Lofoten International Art Festival, Lofoten I think it rains - Burger Collection, Cattle Depot Artist Village, HongKong 5th Moscow Biennial Film Program, Moscow Artist Film Club- ICA, London On Dithering - Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart |
| 2012 | Labor Berlin 12: Drifting - Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
Kochi-Muziris Biennial 2012, India Acts of Voicing, Wurttembergischer, Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany 9th Shanghai Biennale -Shanghai, China DOCUMENTA 13 – Kassel, Germany Sub Topical Heat - New Art from South Asia, Govett Brewster Contemporary Art Museum, Taranaki Making Normative Orders – Demonstrations of Power, Doubt and Protest, Frankfurter Kunstverein Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space – Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell, Ithaca, NY |
| 2011 | Liberalis – Pursuit of Liberty, KUNST + PROJECTE, Sindelfigen
In India and Far Beyond – Khoj, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Berlin Incheon Women Artists Biennial 2011, South Korea Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Art, Taichung Home Spun, Devi Art Foundation, Delhi Blockbuster: Cinema for Exhibitions, MARCO, Monterrey The Global Contemporary. Art Worlds After 1989, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe 4th Fotofestival - Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg Parc de la Villette, Paris The Luxury of Dirt, Galerie Bob von Orsouw, Zurich |
| 2010 | Barrier (free) – An exploration of resistance and obstacles, Ratskeller, Berlin
Heat Wave, Lombard-Freid Projects, New York Selection from AiM International Biennale, Riso Museo d’Arte Contemporanea della Sicilia, Palermo Where Three Dreams Cross - 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London and Fotomuseum, Winterthur |
| 2009 | AiM International Biennale, Marrakech, Morocco
Xth Lyon Biennale: The Spectacle of the Everyday, Lyon Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan, Asia Society, New York Freedom is Notional, Experimenter, Kolkatta, India The View From Elsewhere, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation and Queensland Art Gallery, Sydney Lines of Control, Green Cardamom at VM Gallery, Karachi |
| 2008 | 7th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea
5th Seoul International Media Art Biennale, Media City, Seoul Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, Toronto Six Degrees of Separation: Chaos, Congruence & Collaboration', Anant Art Gallery and Khoj International Artists Association, Delhi, India Usable Pasts, Concerted Forgettings, SMART Project Space,Amsterdam POL1T1C. VIVO. Media Arts Center, Vancouver Bani Abidi & Ayaz Jokhio, NCA Art Gallery, Lahore Crossroads, Elementa Art Gallery, Dubai Destination Asia: Non Strict Correspondence, Elementa Art Gallery, Dubai |
| 2007 | LUSH,Gallery SKE & Jack Tilton Gallery, New York and Miami
Tri Dimensional Scene, Platform China Contemporary Art Institute, Art Beijing International Art Fair, Beijing Contemporary Art from Pakistan, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York GeoPoetics, Centro José Guerrero, Granada, Spain Thermocline of Art: New Asian Waves, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany The Communism of Forms, Gallery Vermelho, São Paulo Destination Asia: Non Strict Correspondence, Soros Center for Contemporary Art, Kazakhstan |
| 2006 | Singapore Biennale 2006, Singapore
The Artists Cinema, Frieze Art Fair, London Sub-Contingent: The South Asian Sub Continent in Contemporary Art, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy Asian Contemporary Art Week, Asia Society, New York 2006 Contemporary Commonwealth, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
| 2005 | 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Fukuoka, Japan
Something Purple- Digital Art from Pakistan, Artists Commune, Hong Kong Cinemascope, Scope Art Fair, St Martins Lane Hotel, London, Bollywood Chaat, SAVAC, Toronto Puppet in a Box, Kunstiftung, Baden-Wurttemberg, Stuttgart Beyond Borders: Art from Pakistan, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai |
| 2004 | Old Masters, Young Voices, SAARC Artists Group Show, Alhamra Art Gallery, Lahore
LA Freewaves, 9th Festival of Film, Video and New Media, Los Angeles Aar Paar 3, Mumbai and Karachi Mateela Film Festival, Lahore A Place Called Home, South African National Gallery, Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg Along the X-Axis: Digital Art from India and Pakistan, Apeejay Media Gallery, New Delhi |
| 2003 | Darmiyaan, Neher Ghar Gallery, Lahore
3rd I, South Asian Film Festival, Roxie Theatre, San Francisco BOLLY>LOLLY>HOLLY>TOLLY- SAVAC, York Quay Center, Toronto Peace with India, Nehar Ghar Gallery, Lahore Around the Miniature too, Nairang Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan |
| Awards[1] | |
|---|---|
| 2011 | Sharjah Art Foundation Production Grant |
Major Installation and Performances/Selected published works
| 2014 | 'Funland' Karachi Series II |
| 2013 | A Table Wide Country |
| 2012 | Proposal for a man in the sea |
| 2011 | The Speech Writer |
| 2010 | Section Yellow |
| 2009 | 'Karachi' Series -1 |
| 2008 | Intercommunication Devices |
| 2008 | Security Barriers A-L |
| 2007 | The Address |
| 2006 | RESERVED |
| 2006 | The Boy Who Got Tired of Posing |
| 2004 | Shan Pipe Band Learns the Star Spangled Banner |
| 2001 | The News |
| 2000 | Anthems |
| 2000 | ...so he starts singing |
| 1999 | Mangoes |
Ideas and Conceptions
The ideas and concepts of her works were all from her own divided biography (Doshi, 2010).[14] Her works consist of heavy political and cultural elements, the tension between Pakistan and India in particular (Cheng, n.d.) .[15] Her works showed her critiques to culture and politics (Guggenheim.org, n.d.),[5] most of the time, she comment through absurd vignettes and humorous (Anon, n.d.).[16]
The sense of political and cultural elements came from her first trip to India when she was 21 years old. It was the very first time for her to feel her own place in the North Indian history. When she was studying in Chicago, she ended up the friendship with many Indians. It had then turned to an understanding of the contradictions between the conflicting national identities between Pakistani and Indian. The cross-border friendships between Indian and Pakistani was described by Bani Abidi as “seamlessness” and “comfort” in which the friendships gave her a pleasant surprise because it was unlike the exclusionary national narratives produced by the two countries (Cheng, n.d.).[15]
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 Abidi, B. ‘Bani Abidi’s CV’ at Bani Abidi’s personal website: http://www.baniabidi.com/short%20bio.html and http://www.baniabidi.com/CV.pdf
- 1 2 Whiles, V. (2008). Bani Abidi. Art Monthly, (315), 18-19.
- ↑ Christov-Bakargiev, C. ‘Bani Abidi’ at dOCUMENTA (13) : http://d13.documenta.de/#/participants/participants/bani-abidi/
- 1 2 3 ‘Bani Abidi’ at National Gallery of Vitoria:http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/crossingborders/biography/bani_bio.html
- 1 2 3 Guggenheim.org. (n.d.). Collection Online | Bani Abidi - Guggenheim Museum. [online] Available at: http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/artists/bios/11675 [Accessed 3 Apr. 2016].
- ↑ Dalrymple, W. (29th June 2015) ‘The Great Divide’ at The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-books-dalrymple
- ↑ BBC News. (1 March 2016) ‘Kashmir profile – Timeline’ at BBC News: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-16069078
- 1 2 "Collection Online | Bani Abidi - Guggenheim Museum". www.guggenheim.org. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
- ↑ "ArtAsiaPacific: Bani Abidi". artasiapacific.com. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
- ↑ "BANI ABIDI - WORKS". www.baniabidi.com. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
- 1 2 3 4 "Interview: Bani Abidi". Granta Magazine. Retrieved 2016-04-04.
- ↑ Bani Abidi’s Artist Dossier at Experimenter: http://experimenter.in/web/?q=node/19 and http://www.experimenter.in/web/artists/bani/dossier.pdf
- ↑ Abidi, B. ‘Bani Abidi’s Works’ at Bani Abidi’s personal website: http://www.baniabidi.com/works.html
- ↑ Doshi, A. (2010). ArtAsiaPacific: Section Yellow Bani Abidi. [online] Artasiapacific.com. Available at: http://artasiapacific.com/Magazine/72/SectionYellowBaniAbidi [Accessed 3 Apr. 2016].
- 1 2 Cheng, E. (n.d.). Interview with Bani Abidi | Asia Art Archive. [online] Aaa.org.hk. Available at: http://www.aaa.org.hk/Diaaalogue/Details/796 [Accessed 3 Apr. 2016].
- ↑ Anon, (n.d.). Bani Abidi - Disruption of a Biblical Memory (from A Table Wide Country) 2013. [online] Available at: http://www.experimenter.in/web/artists/bani/baselfolio.pdf [Accessed 3 Apr. 2016].