ABOUT

Shumaiya Khan, b 1990. Paint, sculpture and installation. My practice is informed by reoccurring instinctual forms received via symbiotic and somatic release. Often referencing a mirroring between the metaphysical and physical human bodies, as well as concealed landscapes such as the inner depths of forests, caves, flesh, veins and quarries. Pieces often embody hidden elemental surfaces or entities, often bodily shaped and height. Forms and environment which appear grow, erode or age. I build out these internal worlds to interact with our external realms. Works produced with oil, salt, ceramic, and textile. My practice is both research and physical, hands-on process.

Paintings and sculptures emerge through repeated layering, washing away, rebuilding oil paint mixed with salt; creating visceral, full-bodied, and textured surfaces. The resulting works are installed as immersive environments, combining stretched and folded paintings, suspended with ribbons or supported by treated wood structures, alongside ceramic sculptures. 

Explorations within feminine origin ancient mythologies, mysticism, alchemy and animism, consider my past self’s journey within spiritual realms, affecting my everyday position on the current socio-political landscape the feminine I am finds herself in. Personal release of facades inherited from industrialised patriarchal worlds, content on upholding external accolades over the human care and condition.