Lot 73: NAIZA KHAN

B.1968 THE WARDROBE Charcoal, conté and acrylic on Fabriano paper 150 by 122 cm. (59 by 48 in.) Executed in 2008

London, Rossi and Rossi, The Skin She Wears, 24 September - 25 October 2008

Naiza Khan: Works 1987-2013, Hong Kong, 2013, p.103 illus The Skin She Wears, London, 2008, no.1, p. 24 illus

The Wardrobe is a work from the artist’s The Skin She Wears series. Born in Pakistan, Naiza Khan studied at the Wimbledon School of Art and the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine art, Oxford. Through her work Khan highlights issues of gender within a religious and secular context in both the public and private sphere. Before embarking on The Skin She Wears series, Khan was struck by the role female students played at the Lal Masjid siege of 2007 in Islamabad. For the first time women took to the streets in their hijabs to protect their religious beliefs. Khan’s response was to develop a series of fabricated metal corsets and armour bodices that were both defensive and defiant, addressing their position within society. The Wardrobe is a display of both war and love, aggression and seduction. Pakistani societal values are deeply personal and yet publicly acknowledged. Khan demonstrates this through the duality of clothing, worn to conceal the body whilst also acting as an outward display of identity. The delicate drawings have become a tool for the artist’s imagination “I see these pieces of attire become more hybrid and illusionary as I draw them – something between real and fictitious – a sort of wardrobe that often reflects contradictory messages.” (http://www.rossirossi.com/contemporary/exhibitions/the.skin.she.wears/information )