Adeela Suleman at Aicon Gallery

In her newest series of sculptural works, Adeela Suleman has steered away from the ‘re-presentation’ of found objects that characterised her earlier work, now embracing a decorative tableau format and representational imagery to narrate her vision of contemporary Pakistani political culture. 

Adeela Suleman.  Untitled 1 (ed. 1 of 3),  2011, stainless steel.
©Adeela Suleman/Goswin Schwendinger www.aicongallery.com.  

Combining birds with bombs and floral scrolls with suicide jackets, the steel reliefs explore the coexisting duality of natural life and the destructive forces of man.  Simultaneously, her handling of her medium juxtaposes the delicate fragility of open-work and filigree with the hard industrial stainless steel.

Adeela Suleman.  Untitled 5 (ed. 1 of 2),  2011, stainless steel.
©Adeela Suleman/Goswin Schwendinger www.aicongallery.com.

Untitled 3, an ornate hanging screen, is composed of a column of repoussé bomb outlines filled in with numerous delicately cut birds: fragile, stiff-legged, and gathered in bunches like bouquets.  A common motif in this series, the birds are meant to be viewed as dead creatures.  

Adeela Suleman.  Untitled 3 (ed. 1 of 2),  2011, stainless steel.
©Adeela Suleman/Goswin Schwendinger www.aicongallery.com.  

‘In contemporary Pakistan, death surrounds us, so the birds are dead,’ the artist explains.  ‘And like any other “thing” they make a pattern, a simple pattern that, silently repeats itself.  Their presence indicates to silence, a silence that haunts you.  A silence that is disturbing, because you always associate noise with birds,’(Suleman, 2010). They stand as a memorial to the silencing of life in the aftermath of violence.

Deeply influenced by the destruction experienced in her homeland, this work highlights the fragility of life and the thinly veiled glorification of violence and glamorization of death that permeate many contemporary societies. 

Adeela Suleman: Recent Works is on display at Aicon Gallery, London until 19 October 2011.
Adeela Suleman: Drained 2011 is on display at Manchester Cathedral as part of Asia Triennial Manchester until 27 November 2011.

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Adeela Suleman, 'After All It's Always Somebody Else...' (New York: Aicon Gallery, 2010) 7.