Faiza Butt: Memory and Metaphor

THE ARTIST THROUGH THE EYES OF CURATOR BEATRIZ CIFUENTES FELICIANO

Text: Beatriz Cifuentes Feliciano, Independent Curator; Edit: Martina Hošková; Photo: Archive

Faiza Butt is a world-renowned contemporary female Pakistani artist. Her work intricately weaves together themes of memory, identity, and cultural commentary, using diverse mediums to engage with the complexities of the human experience. This dynamic interplay of art and social critique positions her as a significant voice in the current artistic landscape. “Artists are social commentators and carry the responsibility of being the voice of their milieu – and the power of image is immense”, are the words of Faiza herself.

The lasting impression of memory

Faiza Butt’s practice is profoundly influenced by memory, which she considers the most valuable resource for an artist due to its inherent tendency to fade or become exaggerated.

“As a child with artistic inclinations, I noticed every subtle change around me. I am often asked about my artistic influences during my youth, but the truth is, there were few public museums and galleries at that time – except for the Lahore Museum, which I did not find too inspiring. Instead of galleries and museums, rich and potent sources of propaganda that surrounded me were my inspiration. From the large, vibrant hand-painted cinema billboards to the writing on the walls, I absorbed everything. This formative stage of my consciousness has left a lasting impression, and I still view life through that lens. As an artist who documents her era, I continue to explore the power and influence of recognizable imagery.”

Growing up in Pakistan as one of five sisters, she has a personal connection to gender-related themes, with gender polemics underpinning much of Butt’s practice. She states: “Artists are social commentators and carry the responsibility of being the voice of their milieu”. During her time at the Slade School of Art, she rejected painting due to its historical association with the dominance of the Western male hierarchy. Instead, she trained in the painting department at the National College of Arts in Lahore, with Persian miniature as her minor subject.

Focus on the male face

The Indo-Persian miniature tradition is characterized by fine strokes of marks and dots known as Purdakht. Butt adapted this technique into fine dots created with ink pens. By incorporating contemporary mediums, she transitioned from the traditional Indian squirrel hairbrush to ink pens, and replaced the customary Wasli paper with polyester film. Despite these changes, the results remain cohesive, producing a unique hybrid technique similar to pointillism. She regards her pointillist works as intricate drawings that rival the conventional status of paintings

Butt’s intricate drawings are meticulously crafted with passion and precision, resulting in surfaces that exist in a space between photography and embroidery. The human face is her passion. She centers her work on the male face as a response to the historical objectification of the female body in art.

In her work, she portrays the ‘Muslim man’ through archetypal symbols such as headgear, facial hair, and cultural attire. Her subjects range from Afghan civilians to European historical figures, Taliban members, London hipsters, politicians, and ethnic minorities, blending both imaginary characters drawn from memory and real individuals. In an age marked by conflict and chaos, she raises questions about the associations and narratives these images evoke. Frequently, her protagonists gaze out at the viewer in a manner that is both questioning and confrontational, combining amusement, entertainment, and provocation.

Destructive impact of humans

Faiza Butt states: “The notion of privilege, power, and its abuse draws attention to the current global environment, which has had a profound effect on me. It often seems that someone must sacrifice their life each time to awaken us from our complacency toward discrimination. I am deeply moved by the emotional intensity of the protestors and the range of symbolic ideas through which they express themselves”.

Butt’s practice reflects on the current state of our world. Her return to oil painting occurred during the Covid years, a time when the world around her came to a standstill, prompting her to revisit and reassess her artistic journey. Butt states: “I adopted slower, time-invested methods of art making as a reaction to the faster and faster world”.

The paintings are panoramic in scale, captivating viewers with their ambition and size. Set against a classical landscape, she depicts a gathering of birds presented in two opposing groups, startled by one another’s presence. Their forms are illustrated in a variety of dynamic postures, expressing emotions that range from challenged and threatened, to confrontational. Viewers are drawn into the scale of the work and the beauty and diversity of the birds inhabiting this romantic, timeless space. However, the paintings also bear clear and visible markers of our contemporary age, as human-generated litter disrupts the idyllic landscape, introducing elements of imperfection and tragedy to the natural world.

The series Phantasmagoric invites the audience to weave their own narratives into the artwork. While humans are absent from this animal realm, their destructive impact is subtly suggested. In one piece, Phantasmagoric-1 we observe a distant war, with missiles rising on the horizon. Startled birds cry out and turn on each other amidst the litter. In Phantasmagoric-2 a burning car is visible in the distance, with smoke filled with carbon billowing into the sky.

The art of calligraphy in the modern age

Butt also works with new media and has a profound interest in the history of language and text, employing ‘word as an image’. She combines the tradition of Urdu poetry with the visual language of creative digital illustration.

“I have a strong interest in the intersections of various art forms. Therefore, this project connects images to words, recognizing that the origins of text are rooted in pictures and visual representations. I select poetry from prominent poets, including Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pablo Neruda, Agha Shahid Ali, and Hira Abu Nada, and transform it into a collection of marks, objects, and debris. These poems offer beautiful allegorical references to our times. Additionally, the linguistic connections of Urdu to Farsi and Arabic are illustrated through the use of contemporary digital English / Kufic script”.

Objects of beauty, alongside those of decay and disarray, are integrated into the text through photographic digital collages. Exploring the recurring theme of the sacred and the profane, beauty exists alongside what is typically seen as unappealing. Butt incorporates images of handcrafted jewellery, stitched into discarded food items salvaged from waste. This paradoxical combination of two contrasting objects reflects the essence of the poem. The final piece is printed on dura-trans light film and presented in a large lightbox. “Black ribbons wind their way across the surface of the illustration, reflecting a deeply personal expression of my creative impulse. Black is a significant colour in Islamic history; it is not only the sacred hue draped on the Kaaba but also symbolizes mourning. These ribbons are tied to trees as a gesture of prayer in the folk practices of the subcontinent. Paradoxically, they form loose calligraphic shapes that contrast with the structured rows of illustrated text”.

The poem explores the fragility of the human condition while offering a message of hope and strength. Words are transformed into images while maintaining their connection to the ornate calligraphic tradition. The goal for Butt was to create a fusion of two creative genres, as such overlaps are rare in contemporary artistic expressions.