Parwaz (پرواز | “soar”)

2024

collaged landscape photos of Passu glacier in Gilgit-Baltistan mounted on gold leaf on canvas, 84 x 96 in.

The birds in parwaaz are abstractions: collaged photos of glaciers in Gilgit-Baltistan’s (N. Pakistan) majestic and ecologically endangered landscapes. The landscape transmutes into soaring birds, enshrined in gold. They were created during artist residencies in 2024 as part of my “Alchemy of Disappearance” installations (Unearthing Stories From The Core project). These studio installation played with the idea of 'always becoming.' An ever-evolving sanctuary to the transfiguration from banal to precious, underscored by my extensive use of gold leaf, recalling alchemy.

Pakistan is the fifth most at-risk country in the face of climate change. This work emphasizes unexpected alignments via common concerns in Oklahoma and Gilgit-Baltistan, N. Pakistan, and similar at-risk regions in the US. and globally, as climate disaster disproportionately affects native populations. First created at Santa Fe Institute of Art, the birds also appeared in my speculative studio installation project, “Our Shadows Are Our Wings” (NARS, 2024), together with Fractured Alchemy.

The birds’ ascent suggest migration and narratives of belonging. For me as an immigrant, belonging is not a static identity but a process of continually engaging. A connection with the earth. With the energy and rhythms of creation—our place in the cosmos as part of greater consciousness. An unceasing process of healing from displacement, both internal and physical. A process of reuniting fragmented parts of oneself, and community.