Tazeen Qayyum
Curated by Ruba Kana’an, Ph.D.
January 2 – 25, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 9, 2025 | 5-8pm
The artist will be present in the gallery on January 4th, 11th, *18th, and 25th during gallery hours and may accommodate viewings on request outside gallery hours.
Da’em دائم (continuous, incessant), 2024, archival ink on acid-free paper, 20 x 27 in. Courtesy of the artist.
“Spiralling in close formations that emerge from a written word, Tazeen Qayyum’s pen and ink drawings are word sculptures that vibrate with the urgency of our time. The unique form of each word is morphed into an agitation on the surface of the paper urging the viewer to see, hear, think, imagine, witness, learn, and remember.
Through these drawings, Qayyum seeks out a dialogue with the viewer. Her work offers a way to think about language as a 'call-for-action,’ a way to actively engage with today’s urgencies. The drawings also explore language as a migrant body with sounds and shapes birthed elsewhere. It questions if the viewer needs to understand the words in the drawing, or can they sense their form and urgency?
In this exhibition words become an invitation for mediation, meditation, mobilization, and memorialization”
– An extract from the exhibition text by Ruba Kana’an, Assistant Professor, Islamic Art and Architecture, Department of Visual Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga.
Tazeen Qayyum (she/her) is a Pakistani-Canadian, multidisciplinary artist based in Oakville. Trained as a miniature painter of South Asian and Persian traditions, Qayyum continues to explore new materials and processes through drawing, installation, sculpture, video and performance. Drawing from complex issues of belonging and displacement within a socio-political context, her art is a way for her to navigate identity and beliefs living in the diaspora. Qayyum’s work has been exhibited internationally at the Bangkok Biennale, Thailand; Karachi Biennale, Pakistan; the South Asia Institute, Chicago, USA; the National Gallery of Pakistan; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Japan; Museo Diocesano, Milan, Italy; the Royal Ontario Museum and the Textile Museum, Toronto among others. Her work is included in several private and public collections, some of which include The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Canada; Welt Museum, Vienna, Austria; The Art Mill Museum, Doha, Qatar; TD Canada Trust Permanent Collection, Toronto, Canada; Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pengzhou, China; The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Canada; Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto, Canada; National Gallery of Amman, Jordan; and National Art Gallery, Nepal.
*Tazeen Qayyum and sound artist Debashis Sinha will host an open workshop/rehearsal on Saturday, January 18th, at the Red Head Gallery from 2 to 5 pm. They will work together, experimenting and researching possible performance strategies for future collaborations. Observers are welcome.
Please see below for additional resources for ابھی here / now.
Isma'u wa'u اسمعوا واعوا (Listen and Learn), 2024, live performance at the National Museum of Qatar, accompanied by Aga Khan Master Musicians. Image credit: The Aga Khan Music Programme.
The artist would like to thank the Ontario Arts Council for their generous support of her practice and this exhibition.
