Utopia

Farah
Kanwal
Mariam Dawood
School of Visual Arts & Design

Abstract

I take Surrealist conventions to make my compositions which are based on my imagination and daydreams. The journey of my work began with studying Surrealism which focuses on utopian dreams and the subconscious mind.

I started reading Salavador Dali's paintings and artworks as he was one of the key figures of the Surrealism Art Movement and his works are greatly influenced by dreams. I started off my work by appropriating Dali's paintings. I incorporated the fiction I dreamt about in those paintings. Later, I kept on developing my own images encompassing my own imaginations and thoughts. The color-palette of my paintings is deeply influenced by the appropriations I made previously. I fabricated those images developing them into textile paintings. I used hand embroidery, machine embroidery and applique as a medium to add texture and richness to my work. Later these paintings were developed into furniture as I wanted to give my paintings a 3D form and life of its own.

The furniture pieces I designed are developed from altered organic forms which support and help to understand my idea of a dreamy world better. The main idea is to visualize my mental imageries and mind recollections and aims to make the viewer enter my fantasies and thoughts i.e. my Utopia through their mind's eye. I want my art pieces to be lyrical, expressing my emotions and dreams in an imaginative and beautiful way. The furniture I designed is inventive and maybe at times obscure in shape, infusing dreamlike Surreal visuals making the idea of providing a dream like experience stronger and denser.

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