Ayesha Sultana

Form Studies VI

Artwork Details

Artist

Ayesha Sultana

Title

Form Studies VI

Date

2017

Medium

Watercolour on paper

Dimensions

11.75 x 8.25 cm each (set of 12)

Credit Line

Art Jameel Collection

Work Description

Rooted in process and the act of making, Ayesha Sultana’s practice is an ongoing investigation of drawing, of seeing space in continuum, of exploring gaps in visual memory and of looking at the periphery and what is overlooked in plain sight. In a constantly evolving process, Sultana refers to the repetition of gesture and mark-making in her practice as a “verb” – a practice in motion and an artwork in action, whether by cutting, folding, piercing, layering, recording, tracing, removing, scratching and so on. An attempt to make visible or to delve into what one can see, and simultaneously translating the visual information, is what engages Sultana. Through the primacy of drawing and painting, this act of looking is to assimilate the experience of her surroundings and space.

Form Studies is a series of watercolour drawings that are sketches and proposals for potential sculptures, three-dimensional projects or manifestations. In these floating forms inspired by the everyday iconography of her home city of Dhaka in Bangladesh, Sultana records street corners and urban architectural facets such as edges, facades, staircases and wall surfaces. Each of the twelve sections of Form Studies VI include an assemblage of forms at their centre. Some have more than one element on the individual pieces of paper, so forms respond and react to one another, both within each piece and with the wider group when displayed as a grid, in turn creating a series of impressions. Here a variety of colours are introduced, from burnt orange to reds and greens. Some forms have a suggestion of depth and three-dimensionality, others are flat against the picture surface. All share a sense of movement and spatial awareness.

Artist Biography

Ayesha Sultana (b. 1984, Jashore, Bangladesh) lives and works in Lilburn, Georgia, USA

Formal and material experimentation are at the heart of Ayesha Sultana’s practice, concurrently working in different mediums and techniques, but with a specific interest in the features of materials she uses in the act of making. This leads to other ways of looking and engaging, in the relevance of formal properties of various materials and the depth of meaning of the medium itself. She completed her bachelor’s in fine art (2007) and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Art Education (2008) from Beaconhouse National University, Lahore where she also taught for two years, and is a member of the artist-run organisation, Britto Arts Trust in Dhaka. Sultana has exhibited worldwide in solo and group exhibitions and her work is in collections such as SFMoMA, San Francisco; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, Delhi; Devi Art Foundation, Delhi; and Tate Modern, London.

Useful Links

Artist’s Rooms : Ayesha Sultana