Eman Fatima practices freedom on a daily basis
Eman Fatima describes herself as a person who lives each day believing in the possibility of progress and change which has brought into question the ideas of liberty and freedom of speech that she willingly wants to take as given within a democracy. She uses shutters as a metaphor in her paintings which acts as a barrier and helps in disconnecting public and private life. Fundamentally, she says that graffiti is a form of speech and expression, which suggests that it carries some value or meaning for the creator and the receiver. Just like how graffiti is seen as a mechanism of expressing marginalized perspectives where the painter sprays unprompted and unplanned texts and imagery on walls of shutters in the very same way Eman bluntly expresses her views, feelings, and emotions on the canvas freely. In every painting, Eman cleverly leaves hidden messages for the viewers and then lets the observer look at the painting with their own through, perception and interpretation. This helps penetrate her consciousness and unconsciousness and view the incident as a part of the reality she is living in.
Eman’s recent work highlights the uncertainties of life in a pandemic by transforming the public canvas into a private canvas. By doing this she is giving the viewers a quick look at her personal self which she could not show to the world in any other way. The shutter again came into play as all of the things that were associated with freedom were taken away from her, things like decisions and choices leaving her to feel like a groundhog day. Boredom, isolation, and segregation weave through her works, some of which also propose glimpses into how Eman worked under pressure. The shutters in her paintings also indicate that the artist like everyone is on hold, awaiting a return but there is so much still around in the temporary absence. However, these shutters and text on them are a great way of reminding people that we all are in this together and that we all are still here for one another.
Written by Nimrah Khattana
Image: Lockdown Series – Self Strike, Eman Fatima, all copyrights are retained by the artist 2020.
