Anamnesis

I have over the years developed a language in art that reflects the natural, organic form – paying a tribute to geology and landscape. My work mimics geological detail and processes. I aim to tell a story by documenting nature in my work; through which I aim to safe guard the purity and essence of clay; my chosen medium. My work is heavily dependent on the use of natural oxides and techniques that complement the natural world and pay a tribute to our environment. Both my clays and glazes are handmade. Recipes/formulae, all original, have been developed over time through extensive experimentation.

I have woven a documentation in the form of relief and surface design, sometimes calm, sometimes agitated, sometimes subjected to intense layering of oxide rubs, slips, burnished surfaces and multiple firings. The entire process is connected. Wet clay, slow drying to a leather hard state, moving into a bone dry ready for a bisque (thermal shock integral for vitrification) and finally glorious glazed transformation.
Clay tells a story of the natural past-my series often highlight nature’s footprint of present. Not a narrative but a snapshot of existence. The process of documentation moves the present into the annals of history. My recent works, since 2011, have encapsulated the representation of human existence in scape of the past- my figurative work (abstract) has been used as a documentation of our (human -gender neutral) presence. The ‘markhor’, our national animal and our citizenry are so deeply entwined … we are not too different. We hang in a fine balance. The work stresses upon the need to maintain this fine balance between nature and human community needs. This latest series sees our predicament depicted through the use of symbolism.

Shazia Zuberi

As With her oeuvre, Rabia Ali scrutinizes the intricacies of the human mind and its ability to rewrite and reinterpret past recollections. Dwelling over the inconsistency of memory, she explores the connection between human imagination and the abstract landscapes of the past.

Memories are innate, nostalgic and flawed fragments of information. As they fail to exhibit the past with true and limpid clarity, imagination fills in the cracks. These deep-rooted imaginativeimpressions that occur within our subconscious mind, have the ability to reshape themselves in accordance to events and experiences that one encounters throughout their life. The mind possesses the ability to generate false, psychic occurrences, giving rise to the understanding of impermanence and transience.

Through her work, the artist explores the realms of imagination, dreams and the fallible nature of memories, attempting to understand why memories fluctuate. Like ghosts, the shapes, colors and feelings of the past are translucent, shifting erratically with the passage of time. Events in the past, in their truest sense, are lost, as they move forth through time, subject to imaginative reconstructions. Through whimsical texture and investigation of color, Ali’s intimate navigation of the pathways between imagined memory and the present, bring to light concepts of transience, delusion and subliminal fantasy.

Rabia Ali