In my everyday life, my escape is in the creative power of art. I am primarily a visual person, and am always observing images and ideas that have yet to take form,” says artist Bushra Chaudry. Chaudry’s work has always been a mirror of her culture in which she lives, and through her work, she expresses her joy, pain, desire and triumphs. She says that as she tries to come to understand the unspeakable events of the existing world, her drawings reflect the outpouring of grief, loss and the ultimate destruction of the world.
“My drawings are the visual expression of my own feelings about the tragedy of the broken borders, and I believe they serve to express what we’ve all been feeling as we grasp the reality that our world has changed forever,” she explains. Chaudry received a BFA in 1992 from Lahore’s National College of Arts, and an MFA in 1996 from New York’s Pratt Institute.
After studying printmaking and miniature painting in Lahore, she applied the elements of printmaking to Indian miniature art, which has always mirrored her culture. “In my work, I construct the events and situations that are part of my childhood and adult culture. My work also addresses gender roles, the fragility of family dynamics, domestic issues and the underlying threads of culture that emphasise my background,” she says.
The imagery in her work references the tensions that exist in society, religion and family as well as her personal history, politics, and sexuality. She has exhibited her works at the Barnsdall Gallery, Los Angeles; the Woman Made Gallery and the Black Walnut Gallery, Chicago; the Henry Street Settlement: Abrons Arts Center, New York; the residence of the Pakistan ambassador to the US; the Bronx Museum, New York; and the World Bank Art Gallery, Washington, DC.
Photos courtesy
Woman Made Gallery
A creative escape
