The artists
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Henna Hands, 2001
wall painting in Karachi,
near the main station
A reappearing issue in Naiza Khan's works is the society's view on the female body in Islamic regions as well as in the Western context. In 2001, she installed "Henna Hands" on exterior walls in a poor neighbourhood in Karachi nearby the busy main station. The Henna paste almost constituted a perfect symbiosis with the walls that were partly covered with writing. Still and unnoticed by the crowd, the stencilled female figures were living among the millions of inhabitants in Karachi for some time. Henna pigments are being used by the women to ornament their hands and feet on the occasion of celebrations. For the figures of "Henna Hands", in contrast, they were used to trace the contours of the female body. Big as life, they move along the walls and seemingly want to augment the space. The monumentality of the figures stems from their corporality that also evokes a lyrical quality. Naiza Khan's intention to scrutinize the feminine, and to examine the tricky relation between body and identity, becomes clearly visible. By dissolving the boundaries between interior and exterior, the artist deals with the problem of being a women in Pakistan in a symbolical way. At the same time, she also reflects upon her personal experience as a mother, wife, daughter-in-law, and as an artist in the Islamic world.
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