Simeen Farhat: Scripted
For more than a decade, language has been the focus for Simeen Farhat’s sculpture. Her Inspiration first began with the prophetic words of poets of various Arabic languages. Later, she adopted the alphabet of Germanic and Romance languages, including English. As the subject matter moved from profound to text message jargon, the artist continued to stylize the elegant fonts in her sculptures to the point that they are no longer legible, suggesting the complex contradictions found in everyday life. Farhat was born in Karachi, Pakistan. She has lived and worked in the United States since 1992, receiving a BFA from Arizona State University and an MFA from Texas Christian University. Her work has been exhibited globally and is held in the collections of the Crown Prince of UAE’s Abu Dhabi Palace Collection, the Peninsula Hotel, Paris and in Dallas among others.
“The text in my sculptures and installations are revolutionary poems, appropriated mostly from famous Farsi and Urdu poets, such as Rumi, Saadi, Ghalib and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, who all wrote powerfully about freedom of thought and speech. The wall-mounted sculptures represent the poems’ poignant and piercing power to induce strong emotions. As many of these poems have also been sung by famous singers from the sub-continent, the suspended installations also express the poems’ melodic power and ability to elicit uplifting thoughts. The shadows cast on the wall are also vital to the aesthetic as they add additional depth and layers behind their meaning. My goal is to translate their poetic dynamism into visual energy.”
Simeen Farhat
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