Stop-motion embroidermation made of cotton thread on silk habotai, 1" square. September 2024.

Colourful drawings on various papers, green tape, table, chairs, and art supplies and instructions on table, and gallery visitors. March 2023.

Photos by Alberto Porro.

Graphite, pencil crayons, India ink, China marker, Acrylic paint, ink pen on acid-free drawing, watercolour, and Yupo papers. March 2023.

These conversational drawings are to be viewed from left to right. On the left is a “planned” drawing, and on the right is the artist’s spontaneous response to it.

Photos by Alberto Porro.

Acrylic felt and gallery visitors. Four panels, 30x70” each. March 2023.

Gallery visitors were invited to transform these tactile drawings by removing or replacing the coloured felt elements anywhere on the felt panels or the floor. I made spontaneous drawings in this installation in response to the felt panels' natural flow, creases, and shadows. The felt’s interlocking fibre structures allow it to stick to itself, so glue or tape was not used to adhere them together. Movement, air circulation, or passage of time will allow the felt to fall on the ground, defying its own logic of being able to stick together. This natural interruption of the artwork calls for collaboration between the art, the artist, and the viewer.

Photos by Alberto Porro.

Non-woven interfacing and acrylic felt, 60x60”, April 2022.

Felt-A-Pattern is created through artist's intuition. On-site, the artist cut patterns in the forms of organic shapes on 6x6” black acrylic felt and stuck them onto the interfacing-covered wall, following a pattern’s basic formations of rotation, reflection, and translation. As felt sticks to felt, no adhesives were used, thus extending the opportunity for some of the cut felt pieces to fall on the ground, rendering a “glitch” in this pattern-making system. As a glitch is visual evidence of a flaw in logic, when the felt falls to the ground, the materials defy their own logic of being able to exist together.

April 2022, MFA Gallery, Concordia University, Montréal. Polyester tape, wooden panel, gesso, found chair.

Grid Wall is a site-specific installation created through improvisation. Each line mimics the previous line and informs the next. The first vertical and horizontal lines were created mimicking the architectural lines of the space. The glossy, black polyester tape contrasts against the white matt wall paint. When the tape peels off the wall, a connection to digital decay as a glitch occurs. The tape becomes embedded in the gallery’s architecture as the grid bleeds to the glossy ground.

The wooden panel on the top right of the installation acts as an extension of the wall itself, interrupting the grid while emphasizing its presence. The found chair in front of the wall interrupts and extends the grid. The grid warping on the chair suggests an IRL* version of projection mapping, thus referencing the digital in the physical. It also suggests the beginning stages of material and digital sculpting, where a wire mesh is first created to fill with building content. These connotations of space offered by the chair speak to my research question about whether it is possible to fully escape the digital or the grid.

Installed at Sub Gallery, Concordia University, Montréal on December 2021.

Video documentation by Studio Lux / Paul Litherland.

May 2021. Varying dimensions. Found and recycled papers, book binder’s board, and neutral pH adhesive glue.

Ambient Forms is about the will to recognize knowledge in the landscapes that surround us. The pages of a book, whether empty or full of material, mark a new beginning. The contents of a book may be (mis)interpreted and reinterpreted in many ways. Each book in Ambient Forms form numerous shapes and occupy different amounts of space when they open, stand, sit, dangle and close.

Ambient Forms was featured in the following exhibition:

memory in the flesh, MFA Gallery, Concordia University, Montréal, curator Cynthia Girard-Renard (2021)

Acrylic yarn, cottolin yarn, wooden tapestry frame, Microsoft Word. April 2021.

Buta Lives acts as a living documentation of an ongoing process of the changes, distortion, and reinterpretation of the Kashmiri floral motif, known as paisley. The flowering plant motif is asymmetrical, shaped like a teardrop with its corners curved. Sometimes it stands alone, and sometimes it is embellished with smaller buti (plural for buta) or other flowers inside and around. The buta motif has represented flowers, flowers in a vase, a mango, an almond, or ornamental designs.

Inspired by my own woven shawl from Pakistan, I translate the buta pattern into a hand drawing, which then is translated into a small tapestry weaving. Using vibrant-coloured acrylic yarn, the buta pattern gets slightly distorted even in the early steps of hand-weaving on a frame loom. After weaving, I manually break down the “code” of the placement of the yarn by assigning letters to the different colours. This “code” is input into an open source computer software to be reshuffled. Then, I re-weave the output, line by line, to create a distorted image of my original buta tapestry in which the motif is illegible.

Digitally printed cotton sateen, polyester thread. February 2021.

“Smocking A Smock” is a stop-motion animation that engages in contemporary discourse on digital technologies and handmade craft by intertwining materiality and immateriality, the real and the virtual. The work begins with a simple smocking pattern on white cotton, creating a distinct dimensional design. This smocked fabric is scanned with a photo flatbed scanner, where the artist moves the fabric along and against the scanner’s light to create intentional distortions and introduce new colours and textural depths, achievable only through this hand-and-machine collaboration.

The distorted image is then enlarged and digitally printed onto cotton sateen, capturing the original fabric in a flattened, altered state. The artist further distorts the printed digital imagery in the animation by replicating the original smocking pattern with thread and needle, overlaying digital manipulations onto traditional handwork. This work embodies the idea of hybridity between real and virtual spaces, demonstrating how digital technologies can transform traditional practices and perceptions.

"Smocking A Smock" highlights the fluid boundaries between digital and physical spaces, revealing the layered complexities of digital materiality and emphasizing the dynamic interplay between the tangible and the virtual.

Smocking a Smock was featured in the following exhibitions:

Le spectre des objets / The spectrum of objects, Sporobole, Sherbrooke, Québec, curators Nathalie Bachand and Éric Desmarais (Nov-Dec 2021)

Infinite Scroll, InterAccess (Vector Festival), Art Spin, Toronto (Aug 2021)

Infinite Scroll, InterAccess (Vector Festival), Factory Media Centre, Hamilton (Jul-Aug 2021)

Approximately 115 frames of hand-embroidery using cotton floss on cotton fabric on a 6” hoop. Animated area is 2x2” on the centre of the fabric. December 2020.

Moving collage made of artist's printed glitch art on paper, handprinted textiles, and dried plants. November 2020.

The glitch art on paper was created by hand-embellishing and hand-smocking on cotton fabrics, which were then scanned by following the scanner light on the flatbed scanner in order to reproduce the distorted image of my labourious hand-work. This being my first stop-motion animation, my goal was to introduce various moving elements that chaotically mingle with each other before they disappear off screen and a simple composition is left behind.

April 2020. 16"x40" each. Digital print on cotton, combinations of hand and digital embroidery. Embroidery floss, cotton thread, and glass beads.

Machine & Me is a series of textile glitch art that seeks to demonstrate a visual progression of my attempts to distort an image using hand and digital means. Unlike traditional glitch art that requires no hand labour and craftsmanship, my work bridges the gap between textile-making techniques and collaboration with digital technologies. My process-based practice combines critical inquiry with textile-making to create unexpected surface outcomes by playing with hand and digital distortion methods that are guided by spontaneity and investigate errors of the human hand. These methods of surface design produce unique colours, shapes, and patterns that would be impossible without the collaboration between hand and machine.

After following a predetermined order of sequence of manipulation, the distorted image was printed onto fabric to be embellished with beads and embroidery techniques to introduce new colours and textures in the artwork. Then, the distorted surface was dragged across a flatbed scanner following the scanner’s light to distort the image. In this step, I as the artist lose agency over the outcome as it will be determined by the scanner’s engagement with the texture of beads and speed of my hands’ movements. The results from this method of scanning are usually elongated, superimposed beads, abstracted woven texture of the fabric, and new colours introduced by the scanner’s light.

The overall colours of the scanned, distorted image were then enhanced on PhotoShop to reflect the vibrancy of the overall series of work. Then, the new image was printed onto fabric to be embellished further with beads and embroidery techniques. It was in this step where new colours and textures could be introduced through beads and threads to motivate uniquely distorted outcomes in future manipulations and prints. The outcome of such intentional play is a series of mixed-media textiles that reveal processes as layers of memories of materials and the artist’s hand.

Machine & Me was featured in the following exhibition:

GradEx 105, OCAD University (online), Toronto (2020-21)

December 2019. 16"x40" each. Digital print on cotton, embroidery floss and cotton thread.

Left: “I should do this more often (go home)”

Right: “I should do this more often (sleep)”

These quilts are self-care reminders for the restless hands and busy minds. The text, paintings, and doodles are excerpts from my art journals that live as archives of my emotional experiences over the years. The therapeutic repetition of stitching adds textural elements that resonate with activity-based fidget blankets used to provide sensory stimulation for people living with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, or otherwise restlessness. The titles of this diptych are personal reminders that are embedded in the quilts as distorted text to maintain the privacy of my reflections.

“I should do this more often” was installed at the following exhibition:

CogArt, Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Health Sciences, Toronto (2019-20)

September 2019. Approximately 30x47.8”. Digital print of my glitch art on cotton sateen, beading, embroidery floss, polyester thread, cotton batting.

Influx II is based on a mixed media painting, Sting Me Not, made by the artist in 2016. The painting went through many stages of digital and hand manipulation before it became Influx II. The process included printing on paper, distorting, scanning, printing on fabric, distorting, scanning, and repeat. The viewer is able to see the relationship between the digital pixels and the woven structure of the fabric. Containing layers upon layers of memories of the original painting and the artist’s hands, Influx II can be interpreted as part of an endless series as well as its own entity.

Influx II was featured in the following exhibitions:

42nd Juried Show of Fine Arts, Visual Arts Mississauga, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga

Hard Twist 14: Entwined, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, curators Helena Frei and Chris Mitchell (exhibited and catalogue cover).

Influx II was also featured on:

“Hard Twist: Curator Tour of the Gladstone’s Textile Exhibition.” by Chris Mitchell, Gladstone Hotel, 2019.

June 2019. Digital repeat patterns of handwoven glass beads, inspired by a watercolour painting (see below).

By designing these surface design patterns out of handwoven glass beads, I am reimagining the material function of the technique and medium.

April 2019. 16x20”. Digital print of distorted painting on cotton sateen, polyester thread, silk thread, cotton sateen backing, poly-cotton batting.

Influx is a series of three digital textile installations taking the form of a quilt and two wall hangings. This series is based on a mixed media painting I made in 2016 called Sting Me Not. The original painting was photographed, printed on paper, scanned and distorted, printing on paper, scanned and distorted, printed on fabric, multiple times. The print in each piece therefore contains layers of memories of the original painting. Between each print, I beaded directly on the paper or fabric before scanning and distorting the image.

March 2019. 12x32” each. Digital print of distorted painting, rubbing alcohol, cotton and silk organza, on paper. Installation view and details.

December 2018. 16x30.5”. Digital print of distorted polychromatic print on silk organza.

Artist’s original poem hand-written and printed with fibre reactive dye, then distorted using Audacity and PhotoShop.

December 2018. 8.5x11” - 16x28”. Digital scan of physical and digital manipulations of a photograph of buta paisley motif, digitally printed on cotton sateen. Rubbing alcohol, PhotoShop, and Audacity were used to create the distortions. Installation view and details.

“The Living Buta” is a living documentation of an ongoing process of the distortion and reinterpretation of the Kashmiri floral motif as a reflection of a Pakistani-Canadian artist. In this series I am exploring and reconsidering in my own way the historic buta (also known as the paisley) motif through intuitive experimentation of digital technologies and hand manipulation techniques. Each distorted image is able to stand on its own as well as be part of this living series.

The title, “the Living Buta”, is a reference to things that don’t die. The buta motif, believed to have been initiated in the 7th century, continues to live in many forms and functions today. This series began with a quick photograph of my buta shaw from the Middle East. I distorted this photo on Audacity, a sound-editing software that allowed me to manipulate the data of this image. On Audacity, I could only hear the sound of my image changing, but not see it visually until I saved the file. Similarly, some of the glitches included interrupted their digital scan physically with my hand, so that the scanner follows the movement of the cloth on the flatbed. In both cases, the final motif was unknown until the process was completed. This ongoing glitch of the buta is to represent centuries of distortion of this motif by people who knew and did not know the history and symbolic meaning of it.

September 2018. Approximately 8x8”. Fibre-reactive dyes and cotton thread on silk and cotton.

An exploration of various surface design techniques, each piece is part of a hand-bound fabric book. Through machine embroidery, I divided colours into shapes to create landscapes of the imagination. The nature of the fibre-reactive dye and embroidery allows each piece to be visually attractive on both sides of the fabric.

1. Polychromatic, side 1/2

2. Polychromatic, side 2/2

3. Breakdown, side 1/2

4. Breakdown, side 2/2

5. Discharge on handpainted silk, side 1/2

6. Discharge on handpainted silk, side 2/2

7. Batik

8. Rozome

9. Fibre-reactive dye print

10. Breakdown and silk painting

March 2018. Digitally rendered hand drawings.

These patterns were designed to be digitally printed on textiles. Inspired by my drawings from visits to Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto, CA.