Farida Batool@faridabatool1970

Artist bio

Farida Batool is a Lahore based visual artist exploring Pakistan’s political upheavals and tumultuous history amidst global challenges. She uses her multimedia approach to navigate, as a flaneur, through the multiple issues of identity(ies) in the city, its everydayness and cultural challenges, as well as having focused closely on the notion of gender and its manifestation within patriarchal structures. She has exhibited extensively in many international and local solo and prestigious group shows. She is an active member of Awami Art Collective which aims to use art in public spaces to generate a discourse of peaceful co-existence.

Batool, is a visual artist interested in exploring Pakistan’s political upheavals and tumultuous history, and developing a comprehensive cultural critique of everyday life. She received her BA in Fine Arts from the National College of Arts, Lahore, her MA in Art History and Theory from COFA at the University of New South Wales, and her PhD from the Centre for Media Studies at SOAS, London. She has been teaching since 1997 and currently is the Dean of Faculty of Humanities, at National College of Arts, Lahore. She has exhibited extensively in many international and local solo and prestigious group shows.

She is an active member of Awami Art Collective which aims to use art in public spaces to generate a discourse of peaceful co-existence. She was involved in many art projects and community workshops for awareness raising among women communities in several urban and rural areas of Pakistan as well as conducted cultural and political dialogue among different communities. Batool presented papers and presentations at international conferences and workshops including Yale University USA; Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Montreal, Canada; Oxford University, St. Joseph’s University Philadelphia and many more.

Artist Statement

The idea of a garden, whether historical, religious or personal is akin to playfulness, joy and freedom. These works takes you to a personal and political journey, where one embraces everything you and me, surrounded by water, flowers, and woodless trees. The ‘neo normalized’ aesthetics constructed between spaces encounters the abstract connection with the present.