The Warrior

Suleman sees her works as biographical, in the sense that what she makes tells us something about who she is and where she comes from. She is deeply rooted in north Indian tradition, culture, and religion, yet she is also acutely aware of the urban and political realities that surround her in modern day Karachi. In her work, the formal and sociological aspects of these two parallel worlds come together as a poetic document to her life.
This work that forms part of the “Mubarizun-No More Series” continues the artist’s engagement with sculpture but pushed closer to the form of relief in order to convey a greater sense of narrative. The zoological motifs have their own iconography that relates to stories from her childhood and local mythologies. The peacock for example relates to her grandmother's complaints about the neighbour’s pet peacock. Their beautiful feathered bird, whilst an attraction during the day would keep the family awake with its insistent crying during the night. Suleman’s ambivalent childhood relationship to the peacock is played out in “warrior” as a metaphor for her relationship to country. Here we find the bird's elongated feathers transformed into spears that whilst offering a decorate element to the work are painful reminders of the constant presence of violence in current day Pakistan. She says, “Death is all around us. The most certain thing in life has become uncertain. Life and death are running parallel to each other. If we compare it with history, contemporary society has increased our capacity to destroy life in various horrific schemes…”

1.“Death and the Maiden: Quddus Mirza in Conversation with Adeela Suleman” in After All, It’s always about Somebody Else…exh. cat., Aicon Gallery, London, 2010