99 Holds, Indoor rock-climbing wall made from 99 unique poured dyed resin casts of the corners of the artist’s body. Embedded with wearable Cuban chains, hair, and hypothermia blankets, 120 × 297 in, 2017

This week, we welcome Baseera Khan, a New York-based visual artist who sublimates colonial histories through performance and sculpture in order to map geographies of the future. Fashion, photography, textiles and music, sculpture and performance manifest Khan’s native-born femme Muslim American experience.

(From left) “Purple Heart,” “Lunar Count Down,” “Act Up,” at Katonah Museum of Art, NY, handmade wool rugs custom designed by artist, made in Kashmir, India, 48 × 30 inches, installed on marble platform, 2018.

Khan is in a six-week studio residency at The Kitchen’s Queenslab space in Ridgewood to produce an experimental television pilot for its “On Screen” series. Inspired by films such as Lars von Trier’s “Dogville” and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Chinese Roulette,” as well as TV shows such as Hulu’s “Ramy” and HBO’s “I May Destroy You,” Khan’s show, “By Faith,” focuses on their personal experiences, longing for intimacy and the fictive memories/mirages that play out inside the confines of the Brooklyn apartment they’ve lived in for over a decade.

Production still from By Faith, 2020

Khan’s project will consider multiplicity, social life and the haunting specter of expectation that permeates the political lacuna BIPOC femme artist communities exist within. Each success in Khan’s career produces a sense of failing upward. Even when we succeed, we feel like tokens or worse, imposters. This project acts as an affront to the idea that marginalized people simply want a seat at the table. Khan is building her own damn table. With your support, Khan can tell a story of isolation, joy and radical honesty. Khan is currently in need of $10,000 in order to fully execute “By Faith.” If you are interested in supporting the project, you can send your donation via Venmo: Baseera-Khan or PayPal: baseerakhan@gmail.com.

 

Nitin is a visual designer, gallery artist, and community arts activist. Past desk-oriented posts include: PBS, Digitas, K12, Inc., Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and Sesame Workshop International....

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