'1000 Partitions'
Bangles and Wire, 2025
Bangles are worn widely throughout South Asian countries, particularly during special occasions. I was gifted many by my Pakistani family as a child. To me they represent unity, family connections and cultural binds. Imagine that each bangle represents 20,000 people. The partition of India and Pakistan resulted in the displacement of an estimated 2-20 million people. Here approximately 1000 bangles hang, connected with wire. Representing the movement of people and their overlapping connections, the circular bangles symbolise family groups, the infinite loop of connection and the almost constant repetition of peoples around the world being made to move and upend their lives on the whims of a powerful few.
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'Tribute'
White bangles and wire, 2025
Imagine if each of these white bangles represents 2000 people. This piece is a tribute to the estimated 20,000 – 200,000 who died as the result of the partition of India and Pakistan. Here the bangles float as if they have nowhere to land or stay. In the violence and chaos these people never found a home.
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Bangles
One day I visited an Islamic Relief charity shop. I had been seeking out South Asian embroidery, but while I was there I found some bangles by the till. This reminding me of my childhood when I was gifted them by my Pakistani family a lot. I bought a few bundles and started laying them out on top of fabric and found a connection to some reading I had been doing: The book ‘Balti Britian’ by British Pakistani author Ziauddin Sardar is part memoir part investigation into what it means to be South Asian in Britain today. In the book he talks about Partition, colonialism, and the diaspora. I found it especially helpful for filling in the gaps I personally had about why and how so many South Asian's came to be living in the UK.
Colonialism uprooted entire villages and towns of people. Partition separated and divided them more, moving entire groups around, yet there are some things that bind them all: Cultural practices, languages, religions, food, clothing, etc. Inadvertently I came to see that this is what the bangles could represent – those multiple groups, separated yet connected. Distinct, yet overlapping.
And so I began to use the bangles repeatedly. I attached them to canvases, bent and shaped them, filmed them and recorded the sounds of them, made hanging pieces, and used them for print making. Currently I am constructing a large scale piece in the style of the white bangles below, but using multiple colours.
One day I visited an Islamic Relief charity shop. I had been seeking out South Asian embroidery, but while I was there I found some bangles by the till. This reminding me of my childhood when I was gifted them by my Pakistani family a lot. I bought a few bundles and started laying them out on top of fabric and found a connection to some reading I had been doing: The book ‘Balti Britian’ by British Pakistani author Ziauddin Sardar is part memoir part investigation into what it means to be South Asian in Britain today. In the book he talks about Partition, colonialism, and the diaspora. I found it especially helpful for filling in the gaps I personally had about why and how so many South Asian's came to be living in the UK.
Colonialism uprooted entire villages and towns of people. Partition separated and divided them more, moving entire groups around, yet there are some things that bind them all: Cultural practices, languages, religions, food, clothing, etc. Inadvertently I came to see that this is what the bangles could represent – those multiple groups, separated yet connected. Distinct, yet overlapping.
And so I began to use the bangles repeatedly. I attached them to canvases, bent and shaped them, filmed them and recorded the sounds of them, made hanging pieces, and used them for print making. Currently I am constructing a large scale piece in the style of the white bangles below, but using multiple colours.
