{"id":223,"date":"2018-12-11T23:51:44","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T23:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/art\/?p=223"},"modified":"2019-01-03T18:48:21","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T18:48:21","slug":"searching-for-home-with-artist-humaira-abid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/art\/2018\/12\/11\/searching-for-home-with-artist-humaira-abid\/","title":{"rendered":"Searching for Home with Artist Humaira Abid"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Humaira Abid working in her studio, 2016<\/p><\/div>\n

Local sculptor, Humaira Abid<\/a>\u00a0participated in a week-long residency in our department in October 2018. \u00a0Abid grew up and was educated in Pakistan, where she earned her BFA with honors at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan.\u00a0 Abid lives in the greater Seattle metropolitan area and serves as an instructor at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.\u00a0 During her residency, Abid visited eight classes which included Studio Art, Art History, and Gender and Queer Studies courses; engaged in an interview featured in The Trail [see image below], gave a public lecture on her most recent body of work, conducted more than a dozen individual critiques with students, and more.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Abid\u2019s work engages with themes of immigration as well as important women\u2019s issues (such as miscarriage, violence against women and girls, motherhood, and taboos around the female body). \u00a0She is greatly committed to asking questions and drawing attention to subjects that are rarely discussed. \u00a0The Department of Art and Art History timed her visit to campus in order to continue engagement with a vital thread of the Race and Pedagogy National Conference<\/em> held on our campus in September 2018, namely the topic of immigration.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Fragments of Home Left Behind, plaster-treated wall and framed miniature portraits, installation shot from Searching for Home<\/em>, Bellevue Art Museum, 2017-2018<\/p><\/div>\n

Students found Abid\u2019s visit intellectually stimulating and transformational, as they explain below.<\/p>\n

Elayna Caron, studio art major explains that an individual critique with Abid impacted her work significantly: \u201cI found it incredibly stimulating to have a fresh set of eyes on my work and Humaira was able to connect with me after just a few moments of seeing my work. Meeting with her has helped me solidify my ideas for my senior thesis. She gave critical feedback and has helped me immensely to move forward with my art. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to get feedback from her and our conversation has totally changed the direction of my art.\u201d Another studio art major, Ronda Peck observes that her \u201c\u2026 experience with Humaira was very insightful and very inspiring.\u201d Peck explains that: \u201cWhen I talked with her one on one, she gave\u00a0me nurturing and comforting advice on my work.\u00a0 She gave me ideas to make my work stronger and more meaningful.\u00a0 She said, \u2018start a conversation about something.\u2019\u00a0 I asked her about her studio space and if she had any particular ritualistic behaviors or unique methods on how she approaches her work.\u00a0 She commented that her studio is a \u2018comfortable space\u2019\u201d where she can both work and relax.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Engaging in individual critiques with senior studio art majors<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Engaging in individual critiques with senior studio art majors<\/p><\/div>\n

Art history major Sarah Johnson noted that: \u201cI feel very lucky to have had the chance to learn about her art and life experiences\u00a0first-hand in her class presentation,\u201d while another art history major, Mary Thompson, praised her participation in an art history course, \u201c\u2026the pieces she shared with the class pertained to other common themes in Abid\u2019s work such as menstruation, puberty, and miscarriages, and exhibited her attention to detail in storytelling through her art, research as well as reflection, and extreme skill and passion for her work. I found it crucial to hear these stories of womanhood that are universal yet often taboo to discuss be told by a non-Western female artist. Abid\u2019s presentation and artworks remind and emphasize that,\u00a0though experienced on various levels of intensity, women\u2019s issues are of concern everywhere and those stories must be shared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ayse Hunt explained that Abid\u2019s work resonated with her as a double major in art history and computer science particularly because computer science is such a male dominated field: \u201c\u2026 it was clear that Abid is very interested in examining the societal pressures women face in different contexts, but particularly those related to the physicality of women\u2019s experiences in the world. It was inspiring to hear Abid speak about how she recognized areas that were restricted to her because she was a woman, such as woodworking, and how she purposely set out to excel in those same areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Public Lecture, University of Puget Sound<\/p><\/div>\n

Clearly, Humaira Abid and her work have resonated strongly with students in our department. Yet, her residency enriched not only students but also members of the faculty and the Puget Sound community with deep exposure to the work of an acclaimed contemporary artist; her intensive residency offered ample opportunities to learn from an internationally renowned female artist who bridges the cultural divide between East and West.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local sculptor, Humaira Abid\u00a0participated in a week-long residency in our department in October 2018. \u00a0Abid grew up and was educated in Pakistan, where she earned her BFA with honors at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan.\u00a0 Abid lives … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":561,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-highlights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/561"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions\/264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/art\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}