Visual Artist/ Educationist
Born 1984 in Lahore, Pakistan, Hina Malik is a visual artist & educationist, based in Lahore. Graduated from Lahore College for Women University, Lahore in 2003. Has a M.Phil. degree in visual arts with distinction from Punjab University College of Art and Design in 2020, majored in painting studio practice. Her work explore the field of research that concern with the complex relationship between female body and cultural identity, and how this exist in the South Asian cultural context.
My work has evolved over the course of last few years. There is no doubt that my work is autobiographical connoting my own experiences. The body is evident in my art practice and it becomes a tool to rely the themes of visibility, trauma, repression and societal expectations that effect women. I look the idea of feminism differently. Women born and raised in advanced countries cannot deny the reality that women all around the world, in spite of large numbers are treated like second grade citizens and considered weak and powerless. Some may argue that a large number of men are also mistreated and abused as well. But the difference is that women are victimized in their own homes by their own families. Within all these issues, the quest started as an observation of the female essence in the public space, but within the course of time it led the conversation into the repression of the female existence within the domestic and the personal. The paintings are hardly been silent on the burden of patriarchy. The use of tie, wrist watch, ashtray, and the elegant sofas are the symbols of masculine hegemony; signifies the invisible presence of man. The bright, vivid, crumpled female garments against empty drab interiors, comment on the effect of patriarchy, lack of individuality and agency that is felt by countless women in domestic and social circles all around the world.