Interference
artist: Farah mohammad
Farah and myself courtesy of Anna Lustberg
Nimble purposeful fingers weave humanity together, string by string.
Interference by Farah Mohammad is an exhibition that delves into the meaning of community. Mohammad- a Pakistan born, NYC based artist has studied social relations and by way of various mediums, brings them to the fore. Themes explored range from culture to coexistence. As NYC serves to be the melting pot of various worlds and cultures, it is somewhat easy to find your tribe- or at least a parallel that comes a hair close enough to the familiarity of what “home” looks like to you.
As the evening begins, Sadaf Padder- the curator and moderator of this artist discussion takes us back to the first gift she received from Farah Mohammad, a beautiful tote bag with an Urdu idiom. The bag was made by Mohammad and her sister. Mohammad explains the bags illustrate culture and language coming together to build community. Often portraying their close friends and family acting out the Urdu idioms in precise comical accuracy to contrast the idiom’s original meaning. The bags serve a beautiful purpose, to start conversation with family and friends while getting closer with Mohammad’s community to build and strengthen bonds.
We weave through the exhibition with guidance from Padder as she asks Mohammad to explain her screenprinting process and the intricacies behind such large installations. For one, Unfettering, is an immense installation . Measuring at 96 inches x 108 inches, the piece highlights multiple delicate silk pieces with individual screen prints on each panel. Once the screen prints had been adhered by way of woodcut press, the silk panels were sewn together to interconnect multiple landscapes simultaneously. It is in this piece that I find the continent Africa sitting proudly amongst the brown and tan silk cutout, calling me to look for other countries and cities inside the piece. It’s with Unfettering I feel nostalgia for soils I haven't yet laid foot to. What is a culture outside of your own that you’ve found peace in?
Another piece in the curation “Give Me Space” calls out to me. It is a depiction of a scaffolding construction site, the patterns captured are so simple yet mesmerizing. A window faces the large scaffolding project, which climbs high into the Karachi skyline. It serves as a realistic depiction of interferences by way of urbanization, the scaffolding interrupting the original landscape protruding into the sky. Applied by a monotype print, the piece reminds me of my own inner musings which often take place post trip. Once the bags are unpacked and I settle back into my day to day schedule back home in Brooklyn, it’s often that the memories made across different seas return back like small fever dreams.
Nyc feels like home
Karati feels like home
The interference of many heartbeats transposed through fingers
Through polyrhythms
Through downbeats and melody played simultaneously
(Pictured from left to right, Saddaf Padder, Falsa Music Trio, Farrah Mohammad)
Where are we? Sadaf’s living room? Transitioning into the musical performance that was so carefully prepared, a beautiful trio stands before us. Roshni Samlal on the Tabla, and Nathalie Barret-Mas on violin flank Falsa, our storyteller and vocalist. Such beautiful storytellers, such talented vessels we are blessed to sit amongst and marvel with. It reminds me of the blessing that is preservation by way of song. Do we interfere or do we pepper in a new narrative of perspective? Is this even our right? As music swells to pull me from the line of introspection, the drum steadily grows in dynamic, this is no time for self reflection. Chants call the violin in to sing along with the vocalist as they converse. Across the room Mohammad’s niece happily cries along to the melody as an unspoken background vocalist, an addition of a woven thread that builds this piece to a deeper completion.
Sitting cross legged whilst being serenaded by the sounds of a cohesive sound trio that weaves 800 years of stories, lives and heritage tightly together in less than 30 minutes. It takes all of me to remain present. It takes all of me to remind myself to notate this moment to capture the feelings of nostalgia for a home I’ve never laid foot to soil. How many ancestors have danced in the room whilst we sit in awe over their present gift of sound?
When we think of an interference it’s often with the connotation of an unwelcome disruption. However Mohammad’s exhibition reminds us of our roles in other’s lives. What a humbling recognition that as a society we are naturally intertwined. It is inevitable to disrupt someone’s space, or their flow of thought- and these are in the daily interactions we have- imagine the powerful effect we have on each other on a much grander scale as we shape and restructure society’s culture to make way for a more empathetic world.
Pictured: Falsa Music Trio (Umer Piracha vocalist, Roshni Samlal tabla player, Natie Barret- Mas violinist)