AISHA KHALID (B. 1972)

Aisha Khalid is one of Pakistan's leading neo-miniature artists. Khalid's exquisite visual vocabulary of infinite repetition and pattern engulfs the picture plane and creates a stunning, virtual space. Her techniques of ornamentation generate a surface of syncopated rhythms and suggest both physical and psychological infinity within an enclosed space. "Her subtle play with pattern illustrates how the common Islamic motif of abstract formal repetition may serve to reassure through recycling the familiar. Pattern plays its part in Khalid's use of camouflage by hinting at the hypocrisy within an orthodox use of repetition, one legitimized by a popular concept of tradition which refuses historical change." (V. Whiles, Portraits & Vortexes, exhibition catalogue, Hong Kong, 2007, unpaginated)

Aisha Khalid's practice plays with the notions or surface and silence as forms of camouflage, that obscure for ane meaning. "The red geometry seems to disappear quickly, into silence. Complete withdrawal and stillness is the call of the day. There is too much noise in the world and a need for calm is needed in the environs. It is time for silence. [...] The red geometry fades to a white one [...] the red appears and its reflection is camouflage again [...] The circular vortex of the camouflage is violent and destructive like a tornado." (A. T. Naqvi, 'the 21st Century Miniature Album', Portraits & Vortexes, Aisha Khalid, Hong Kong, 2007, pp. 66-67).