Everyday over the next few weeks, we will be highlighting the shortlisted artists for The 2022 Sovereign Asian Art Prize – the 18th edition of Asia’s most prestigious prize for contemporary artists. Selected from over 400 entries, the finalists hail from 16 countries and regions across Asia-Pacific. Of the artists, 27 are new to The Prize – appearing in our shortlist for the first time. Read on to discover more about our finalists, their key points of inspiration, and why it is important to champion the work of artists from Asia-Pacific.  

Marium Agha (Pakistan) was shortlisted for her work HEAR HEAR. Created using found tapestries from a Karachi flea market, Agha has deconstructed the fabric and altered the weave to create a new narrative.

How did you first become interested in tapestry?

Karachi hosted a very popular open-air market, where vendors from all walks of life had stalls to sell their goods to the people of the city every Sunday. It is in this market; I was acquainted with machine made tapestries being brought into the city by Afghan men. These tapestries were replicas of popular imageries of the Rococo era depicting scenes of love, youth, light-hearted entertainment, nature. As I walked past these stalls, I couldn’t help but wonder how misfitting these imageries were in contemporary language. It was almost like Bollywood in the 80’s selling love to the people of today. Couldn’t relate – couldn’t understand.

In the confessions of St. Augustine, written between AD 397 and 400, he confesses his sinful youth for the concupiscence of the flesh – this seemed more relevant in contemporary language of love. So, one day, I bought one large tapestry for PKR 2000. It portrayed a man sitting at the feet of a woman, possibly courting her. I hung that piece in my home studio and for months just stared at it while doing household chores, tending to my 2year old daughter.

The tapestry stared back.

Finally, I mustered enough courage to pick up a pair of scissors and cut up the tapestry. It was time I addressed the narrative it portrayed and re-create it into something that wasn’t too far away from contemporary reality. I created my first narrative by re-constructing the tapestry on a new fabric and de constructed the yarn of the tapestry and re constructed it with newer thread, but this time, the image wasn’t static. It moved. Each colour of the original tapestry was drawn to create a movement, the women became flesh to devour, and the man masked as the consumer. The borders, the rope and colours fell off, the weave left unfinished. The rawness of the work was the start of a new narrative – a narrative which had a place in today’s language of love.

Can you tell us a bit more about the origins of the materials that you have reworked to create ‘HEAR HEAR’?

Sunday markets do not exist anymore, but contacts that were established with the Afghan men over a period of 10years have help me enormously to always have the first pick of the stock they get from China. ‘HEAR HEAR’ is the culmination of 2 different tapestries to re work a new narrative.

Your artwork description includes a descriptive text starting: ‘Hear hear, feed it to the dogs…’ – would you be able to elaborate on this?

They say that an artist must experience life to make impactful art, I have also been told that there is a sense of rawness and naivety in the way I address my work. The process of construction is so organic that most of the time I have no control over the art and more than often I feel it is leading me to its entirety. The men in the image have a piece of meat in their hands which is callously thrown in the whirlwind of the structure of the work.

The horse, the dogs, the hunt, yet the hunted is discarded. The meat which is the heart in its very literal description is torn, pushed, and pulled. The poem ends with a curse, that in the law of the universe, every good is rewarded and every bad is punished, nothing last forever. You will drown. Now you may feed it to the dogs. The dogs are known for their loyalty to their masters, but even though in this work they mask themselves as rabbits, the look away from the wrong, and those who don’t, drown in the sea of destruction.

How important is it to support artists from Asia-Pacific?

Asia-Pacific region is diverse in terms of its culture and heritage, it has always faced forms of xenophobia and bigotry leading to division. Art and culture have always been a great source of hope in bridging the gap between hatred and violence. When we come together, as artist, raise our voices and work towards a goal, we create and an understanding which is based on tolerance, acceptance and gives us an opportunity to heal and grow as a region.

The Sovereign Art Foundation uses this opportunity to create a safe space for new ways of learning and understanding.

To vote for Agha’s work, click here. The most popular finalist will receive the Public Vote Prize and USD1000.

To register interest in purchasing Agha’s artwork, click here. Artwork sales will be launched in person and online during Art Central, from 26 – 29 May 2022. Proceeds will be spilt equally between the artist and our charitable programmes.

Want to learn about our other finalists? Tune in tomorrow for our next interview. To read previous artists’ interviews, click here.