Wash and fold: revelatory housekeeping in an age of pandemic and racial injustice
Join Victoria-based artist Farheen HaQ for an intimate look at the ideas and practices that are currently shaping her projects. She shares with viewers how ideas take seed for her and the processes she works through to emerge with images, symbols, gestures and forms. See how Farheen’s latest works transform pain and family histories. A bundle of lentils puts to rest internalized patriarchy; a bar of soap constructed for washing in tandem embodies forgiveness. Get an inside view into Farheen’s studio practice which illuminates politics and the world context as it lives in her body and family.
Farheen’s film Drinking from My Mothers Saucer (2015) was recently exhibited at the AGGV in the exhibition Tender Works (2019). This new program is an opportunity to see how the ideas that informed the 2015 film have evolved over the last few years through her engaged and responsive process. VIEW VIDEO HERE.
Farheen HaQ is a South Asian Muslim Canadian artist who has been living on unceded Lekwungen territory (Victoria, BC) for 20 years. She was born and raised on Haudenosanee territory (Niagara region, Ontario) amongst a tight-knit Muslim community. Her multidisciplinary practice which often employs video, installation and performance is informed by interiority, relationality, family work, embodiment, ritual and spiritual practice. Farheen’s current work focuses on understanding her family history on Canadian territories, caregiving and the body as a continuum of culture and time.
She has exhibited her work in galleries and festivals throughout Canada and internationally including New York, Paris, Buenos Aires, Lahore, Hungary, and Romania. Recent exhibitions include The Ground Above Us at the Legacy Gallery, Victoria, BC (2019), Tender Works at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, BC (2019), Hamara Badan at TRUCK, Calgary, AB (2018), Sentirse en Casa at Casa Cultura Gallery, Medellin, Colombia (2018), Being Home at the Comox Valley Art Gallery (2015), Fashionality at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection (2012), Collected Resonance at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (2011), The Emperor’s New Clothes at the Talwar Gallery, New York (2009), and Pulse Contemporary Art Fair, Miami (2008). Farheen received her BA in International Development (1998) from the University of Toronto, her BEd (2000) from the University of Ottawa and her MFA in Visual Arts (2005) from York University. In 2014, Farheen was nominated for Canada’s pre-eminent Sobey Art Award.
Field Trip: Art Across Canada
We are pleased to partner with a new digital arts initiative, FIELD TRIP: Art Across Canada. This new online platform delivers arts experiences with some of Canada’s most celebrated artists in a national partnership with leading arts organizations.
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is located on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen peoples, today known as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. We extend our appreciation for the opportunity to live and learn on this territory.
Image credit: Farheen HaQ, Image stills: Wash and fold: revelatory housekeeping in an age of pandemic and racial injustice (2020)
