Drawings
This project started in the 2020 lockdown. I decided to record myself drawing on 6ft canvases. I wanted to work on a bigger scale as I felt I couldn’t draw small things after spending a long time painting abstract shapes that felt ‘loose’. A 6ft canvas allowed me to take up space and paint big. The paper had been sitting in my studio since 2014! I finally got that out!

I noticed that each of these pieces were influenced by a commission I was working on at the time with UCL Culture. This was an art research project exploring how I could incorporate East London history into an art project, but due to the lockdown I had to change my way of working. Through the lockdown I had Zoom conversations with 29 different deaf people who all had something to say about our history, culture, language, politics, mental health, education and much more. In total there was 22 hours of conversation, and after each one I spent time drawing with charcoals. The results have even surprised me!

I realised how I am politically active in my art and use it to talk about difficult issues that are often forgotten about and dismissed. The result of the recordings of me doing these drawings were filtered into my first film that I edited. This was a an opportunity to learn new skills and make art in a new way that got the community involved and helped them to feel part of it.

Again, my self portraits- I just like to remind myself to notice me. Some may say it’s a ‘figure of speech’, but it’s a ‘figure of image’ for me. I am seen as a typical Asian Muslim deaf woman and people react differently when their visual assumptions are misread. This is something I have to carry with me as it is me, but I am also me the artist, me the art therapist, me the activist, me the educator and me the facilitator.

The Network (drawing) is about the mental health team and how they work together to ensure the service is effective for everyone, especially the families.