Zinnia Naqvi

Zinnia Naqvi is a visual artist based in Toronto. She received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography Studies from Ryerson University (2014) and is pursuing a Masters in Fine Arts – Studio Arts from Concordia University. Her work has shown in a solo exhibition at the Ryerson Image Centre, and group exhibitions at Gallery 44, Gallery TPW and Regent Park Film Festival. Her work has been shown internationally at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival and Uppsala International Short Film Festival. Her practice addresses issues of globalism, trans-nationalism and identity.

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Seaview + My Name is Veena

Naqvi’s video and installation pieces address issues of authenticity and narrative, by using various techniques which force the viewer to question the relationship between subject, author and viewer. She does this with personal testimonial and home footage in the film Seaview (2014) and fictional narrative in the installation My Name is Veena (2016).

Seaview (2014) is an experimental film which combines home video and captured footage from Karachi, Pakistan. Naqvi travels back to her country of origin to compare childhood memories of this place with lived experience. She questions the ability of any single medium in giving a just depiction of a place or culture.

Naqvi confronts her own personal struggle of being caught between the ideals of Western and Eastern societies. Rather than affirming any single understanding of Pakistani society, she constantly complicates her own depiction by questioning the relationship between subject, author and viewer.

This film attempts to reveal the complications and hostilities of translating culture across time and seas.

My Name is Veena (2016) is an installation which looks at the South Asian woman as the centre of the exotic and the "other". Saris (a traditional Indian dress) are hung from the ceiling in order to mimic the delicate way in which they are draped around the female figure. A video piece is then projected onto the cascading fabric, which pans in and out of a young woman, focusing on specific aspects of her body such as hair, eyes, and lips.

The accompanying audio piece is a fictional narrative of a young woman’s experience of wearing the sari after emigrating from India to England. The narrative is read by Veena, a dictation voice produced by Apple Inc. who uses an Indian-English voice. The artist aims to confound the viewer by playing with readings of personal narrative and fabrication.

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Zinnia Naqvi

Seaview + My Name is Veena

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FUTURE MEMORIES

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