ARTISTS STATEMENT
This work is a contemplation on identity and inheritance through the lens of an unfinished family heirloom. My mother started embroidering this linen as a young woman and could never return to it because of domestic expectations. I sculpted the fabric into a new form – making the work a collaborative effort.
Tearing and reshaping the fabric, I engage with the tension between honoring maternal labor that shapes us, and asserting an individual identity. The incomplete embroidery is a reflection of the often mute hours of maternal sacrifice and toil that are the foundation of heritage.
The juxtaposition of the function of the fabric against its altered form frames motherhood as both a source of inherited identity, and a site for transformation.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Khytul Abyad is an interdisciplinary artist from Kashmir, South Asia, whose practice spans text, image, sound, video, performance, and installation. She earned her BFA from Kashmir University and went on to receive a full merit scholarship for her Master’s studies at Beaconhouse National University in Lahore. Khytul’s work has been featured in prestigious venues, including the Kochi Muziris Biennale, where she participated twice—first as an undergraduate student. In 2019-2020, she was awarded the Guru Fellowship in Buffalo, New York, followed by the Emerging Artist Award from the Foundation of Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) in 2021. In 2022, Khytul received the New Artist Scholarship at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she completed her MFA in Writing. Now based in Chicago, Khytul continues to explore writing, drawing, and printmaking in her work.
© Khytul Abyad Qazi