SAIMA KAUR
Saima Kaur is a Yorkshire based textile artist exploring play and storytelling through the medium of stitch. Her work is informed by the folk embroideries of North India, in particular their ability to create worlds through the use of ancient motifs, colour and complex layering of pattern. Saima’s work has a strong illustrative quality that embodies a dedication to her craft and the ability to play with traditional forms in contemporary ways.
The works in this exhibition respond to the theme of play; in particular the interplay between the real and the symbolic. The artworks bring together people, creatures and patterns in free flowing worlds that present the possibility of egalitarian dreamscapes. The large work is a print of a drawing made using ultra bright, easily accessible Sharpie pens featuring motifs often found in North Indian folk embroideries.
The accompanying mixed media artworks are reconfigurations of elements found in the larger print. Here, the artworks are made by playfully mixing lines made from the Sharpie pens, unfurled threads and fragments of hand embroidery. Together the materials, motifs and processes allow an exchange between traditional and contemporary approaches to offer new definitions of drawing.
Saima recently completed a commission for The Festival of Making, and has been featured in Embroidery and Selvedge Magazine.
