Drawing is an ancient tradition, simple and accessible. Because drawing has been applied in so many different ways, from geographical maps to animation, it is an open medium, easy to manipulate and make your own. It is practiced in all cultures, loosening it from the constraints of historical suppositions. In my work, I use this universal medium to test the boundaries of tradition.

My work challenges cultural stereotypes by visually rendering the contradictions of nationality, heritage and the act of identifying simultaneously with separate, disparate societies. I use traditional patterns of South Asia to connect to and deepen my own sense of these parts of me. I also use the Western techniques of creating form as a way of acknowledging my upbringing and training in the United States.

The textiles of South Asia are now a popular part of America’s market similar to the way that products and trends from the U.S. have penetrated the East. Exchanges between the East and West reveal how oceans are not impenetrable margins. Instead, the boundaries between continents and humanity are increasingly fluid. In the same manner in which the world is changing to embrace multiplicity and mutability, my relationships to diverse cultures are in a constant flux, unstable and indefinable. I intend for my work to reflect this chaos.

In Landscape #1, I collaged paper that was found from Bangladesh and is hand made and block-printed. In this piece, I intend to create a landscape of pattern, using hybrids of animals from the East and West and the female figure to describe the complexities of identity.