Tania Qurashi
My work is rooted in my identity as a daughter of immigrants from Pakistan and Guatemala. Through paintings, drawings, and objects, I explore the cultural, racial, and ethnic melancholy and isolation of living in an American suburb. Gardens, windows, fences, and objects represent the many facets of my identity as a child of immigrants, a multi-racial and multi-ethnic woman, subjected to American history and idealism. Objects become vessels of exchange between cultures and generations, as well as channels to explore the romantic, religious, personal, and political. The fragmented identities contribute to the shifts in imagery, while attempts of reconciliation with the self through windows and fences affirms our identities as outsiders looking in and looking out.