Background
Bani Abidi was born in 1971, in Karachi, Pakistan.
4 Mall Rd, Anarkali Bazaar, Lahore, Punjab 54000, Pakistan
In 1994, Bani received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan.
36 S Wabash Ave #1201, Chicago, IL 60603, United States
In 1997, Abidi began to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she got a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1999.
Bani Abidi at her exhibition in Gandhara Art Space.
Bani Abidi at her exhibition in Gandhara Art Space.
Bani Abidi at her exhibition in Gandhara Art Space.
(A fictional ''documentary'', presented in the form of ten...)
A fictional ''documentary'', presented in the form of ten flip books in a beautiful slipcase, this evocative artist's book tells the story of a retired political speech writer.
https://www.amazon.com/Bani-Abidi-Speech-Writer/dp/0955667445/?tag=2022091-20
2012
Bani Abidi was born in 1971, in Karachi, Pakistan.
Bani Abidi studied painting and printmaking, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan, in 1994. Later, in 1997, she began to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she got a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1999.
It was at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, that Abidi developed a profound interest in cinematography. Later, her early engagement with video, led to the incorporation of performance and photography into her work in order to address issues of nationalism and post-colonialism, especially when it came to India and Pakistan. In her work, Bani not only depicted subjects, that dealt with the historical events, that occurred between India and Pakistan, but also produced documentaries, that portrayed the minority groups in Pakistan, such as the Hindus, Christians and Zoroastrians.
One of Abidi’s earliest videos, titled "Mangoes" (1999), reveals her barbed sense of humor. Two women - one Indian, one Pakistani, both played by the artist, eat mangoes and reminisce about their childhoods. Soon, however, their amiable chatter escalates into competitive boasting about the fruit, grown in their respective homelands, which they reference from memory as expatriates. Bani used a similar tactic in the two-channel video "The News" (2001). Here, a Pakistani and an Indian newscaster, again both performed by Abidi, issue divergent reports of the same event, based on a familiar joke.
For her work "Karachi - Series 1" (2009), Bani took photographs of non-Muslim Pakistanis in the street at dusk during the holy month of Ramadan, when the metropolis is quiet as Muslims sit down to break their fast. Abidi renders visible the Hindu and Christian minorities, which together constitute less, than five per cent of the population, acknowledging, that the city is their home too, by inviting them to carry out mundane domestic activities - reading a newspaper, ironing, arranging flowers - in public space. These are ambivalent portraits, each labeled with the subject’s name, time and date, as if they were documents of surveillance. The figures are shot from behind at a wide angle, the light of the setting sun heightening the oddity of their interpolation into the streetscape - as does the images' lightbox presentation. But while politics and cultural critique pervade Abidi’s oeuvre, aesthetics remain her primary concern. These works may act as catalysts, but the responsibility for real change ultimately resides with the viewer.
Bani acted as an artist-in-residence in the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, in 2000, Fukuoka Art Exchange Program, Japan, in 2005, as well as DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program between 2011 and 2012.
During her career, Abidi presented her work at several solo exhibitions, including those at VM Art Gallery, Karachi (2006 and 2010); Oberwelt, Stuttgart (2006); Gallery TPW, Toronto (2007); Gallery SKE, Bangalore (2008); Green Cardamom, London (2008 and 2010); Project 88, Mumbai (2010); Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, United Kingdom (2011) and Experimenter, Kolkata (2012-2013).
Her important group exhibitions include Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial (2005); "Thermocline of Art: New Asian Waves", ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2007); "Annual Report: A Year in Exhibitions", Gwangju Biennial, South Korea (2008); "Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan", Asia Society, New York (2009); "The Spectacle of the Everyday", Lyon Biennial, France (2009); "Where Three Dreams Cross: 150 Years of Photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh", Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, and Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland (2010); "The Global Contemporary: Art Worlds After 1989", ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2011); "Making Normative Orders: Demonstrations of Power, Doubt and Protest", Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt (2012), Documenta 13 (2012), Lahore Biennale 2018, Lahore (2018) and others.
Currently, Bani divides her time between Karachi and New Delhi.
(A fictional ''documentary'', presented in the form of ten...)
2012Shan Pipe Band Learns The Star Spangled Banner
(This double-channel video installation is a part of "Bani...)
A Proposal for a Man in the Sea
(This photographic installation is a part of "Bani Abidi: ...)
Section Yellow: Exercise in Redirecting Lines
(This collage on Inkjet print is a part of "Bani Abidi: Th...)
The Address
(This photo installation is a part of "Bani Abidi: They Di...)
And They Died Laughing
(This photo installation is a part of "Bani Abidi: They Di...)
Karachi Series I
(This film installation is a part of "Bani Abidi: They Die...)
Locations in the Garden of Love
(This film installation is a part of "Bani Abidi: They Die...)
The Lost Procession
(This film installation is a part of "Bani Abidi: They Die...)
Security Barriers A–Z
(These digital prints are part of "Bani Abidi: They Died L...)
Section Yellow: Untitled
(These inkjet prints are part of "Bani Abidi: They Died La...)
Memorial to Lost Words
(This installation is a part of "Bani Abidi: They Died Lau...)
In her oeuvre, Bani uses video and photography in order to comment on politics and culture of India and Pakistan, and the tension between these two countries. The artist’s subject matter ranges from border tensions to immigration conflicts, cultural diversity and the relationship between private and public space.
Quotations: "I prefer to engage with things I may or may not find important at my own discretion, and feel a bit throttled by the world’s anxious curiosity about Pakistan. So I think I make a conscious effort to stay away from a flat definition of what is critical or political, both conceptually and visually."