PUBLISHED IN YOULIN MAGAZINE
Amber Arifeen is a prolific painter who has hybridised her art practice to include sculpture, performance art, video and travel experiences. Her original sense of colour composition transcends the typically traditional and conventional boundaries of classical landscape interpreting it as a vibrant, psychedelic and a modern medium. The immediacy in her latest series of paintings showcased at Haam Gallery depicts breathtaking scenes of the Northern Areas of Pakistan. Arifeen has been formally investigating figuration painting through sensual tableaus and architectural scapes with intimate interiors and panoramic facades of buildings. But in her current work, there is a bold and dynamic shift leaving behind autobiographical and representational forms of the human condition, while entering into the subconscious and psychological capturing of the self.
Through her art practice, Arifeen sets an example for artists to deeply explore nature by creating opportunities to step outside their comfort zone, daily life and environment. The breadth of work created by the artist for her solo exhibition, “I Am In The Colours”, presents a series of recalling lived experiences of freedom and independence enjoyed by the artist while residing and exploring the Hunza Valley. These travel adventures have had a profound effect on her outlook on life. We sat down for an in-depth conversation with the artist to discuss her art practice and philosophies on life:
NJK: Colour has a strong presence in your painting practice. Can you walk us through how you developed these visual associations over the years?
AA: As humans, we apply concepts to things using characterisation and meaning. Even colours are filled with these concepts and charged with memory, feelings, and associations. When we experience them, the truth becomes secondary, acting as projections of our own selves. Reality escapes us and leaves us with a limited perception of understanding experience. The ‘self’ or ‘ego’ inside guides this reality and it’s that voice that generates the illusion of intellect. Simply, truth becomes subjective when we remove intellectualism and language. I felt myself experiencing the present moment and that opened up infinite possibilities of revelation, freedom, and colour exploration. This introspective journey came from the living exploration of freedom as a female fueling my painting practice.
NJK: There is a departure from figuration to panoramic landscapes. How did this shift happen?
AA: When I began using colour as a directing force for landscape painting the process was intuitively triggered by witnessing the plains, forests, and mountains transporting me to another state of being. The evolution of existence has been at the heart of my work. The nature of freedom has become an integral part of my practice by using meditation taken from the Buddhist teachings of Dzogchen. My last solo show at the Sanat Initiative in Karachi was titled ‘Nature of an afterthought: A posteriori’ which came from reflecting on my personal life. I moved from reliving experiences from the time I lived in Karachi into a closer examination of myself, remnants of memory carried distortion of emotional and sensory baggage. I began processing colour and material as meaning around my subject matter. My latest exhibition “I am in the colours” isn’t a departure from figurative to the landscape but a continuation of my previous journey. The ego and self have been removed in this work. The entire composition is a representation of my experience of these landscapes capturing the present moment in time. Colour created a renewed sense of awareness, Dzogchen teachings suggest intellectualisation of reality can be eliminated through meditation and I wanted to puncture the dominating ego to reach self-acceptance.
NJK: Travelling is seen as a therapeutic endeavour. How would you describe it?
AA: I've travelled a lot on my own, and most recently I went on a residency to the South of Italy, that not only transformed me personally but brought back performance art into my life. A piece I worked on during the residency used dance as a medium of exploring freedom in the context of the female South Asian. I did a series of dance performances in various locations such as fields, castles and streets during the residency enabled me to explore freedom in relation to the landscape of Italy and as a South Asian female. The residency was the starting point for me to begin my journey into the freedom of the body connecting with its environment. A few months after I returned to Pakistan, I moved to Hunza to continue these experiences of self-reflection. This created the foundation for my solo trip to Hunza last year, and my consequential move to the valley earlier this year. It freed my sense of restrictive subjectivity in a way that allowed me to create a new visual language for my practice. Hunza Valley, its people and its warmth changed me creating this bold shift in my painting practice that you can witness in my latest solo presentation. The clarity I felt experiencing nature became an expression of freedom. Travelling for me has always been really transformative.
NJK: When you were solo travelling in the Northern Areas of Pakistan what were your observations of the environment and community?
AA: Travel for me has a lot to do with building self-esteem and confidence to feel like an independent woman in Pakistan. Hunza Valley specifically felt like a world away from the chaos of daily life. I did navigate through some challenges when dealing with certain men on my solo trip that reminded me that I was still in Pakistan. I was alone but there was a sense of safety which came from the culture of the Hunza community. Locals treat women as equals and the literacy rate is very high in the region. Whereas in bigger cities I don't feel as safe because they are unpredictable. Being in nature has had a transformative effect on me that was not possible in the city. Hunza Valley became a medium through which I connected to the metaphysical or spiritual sides of myself. Anyone and everyone should visit Hunza, especially women because it's not too far away from home, but it's far enough that you can experience a sense of freedom. It's one of the safest places in Pakistan even though it is rapidly changing and in the next couple of years, it will be a very different place for tourists.
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