Bio Samar F. Zia is an artist, curator and writer based in London. Alongside making art, she writes critical essays examining cultural markers such as art and books.
Zia holds an MA FA from Central Saint Martins, London and graduated with Distinction in BFA from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi. She holds the position of Curator of Events at her Alma Mater UAL’s Alumni of Colour Association (AoCA). She continues to contribute to the Fitzrovia Community Centre, London in various capacities where she has been artist-in-residence. She is also a Trustee of the Fitzrovia Chapel. Zia is founder of Art Social, where she facilitates creative workshops for families and adults.
Zia has curated exhibitions independently in London, worked as exhibition guide at the Hayward Gallery. She has served as visiting faculty at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture and taught at Art Academy London.
Artist Statement | Knowledge of the Ancients
Since the pandemic, climate change has become a recurring theme in my practice. Using natural disasters such as urban flooding as a point of departure, my paintings consider the intersection of land reclamation, climate crisis, and biodiversity. This is an ongoing investigation that questions incongruous urban development and prevalent ecosystems in developing countries such as Pakistan.
This series began as a response to the Monsoons of 2020 that resulted in massive urban flooding in Karachi and subsequent flooding since that left the country devastated. In 2020 the part of the city with my home was completely submerged. Ironically, this area of the city consists of reclaimed land and was part of the Arabian Sea less than 50 years ago. Watching the waves crashing against the infrastructure, with homes and bridges underwater, served as a sad yet powerful awakening; nature was reclaiming its space. An ecological uprising of sorts, where the notion of water memory undermined urban planning, belonging and ownership. This idea came to fruition in the paintings Land Map v/s Water Memory and Urban Kaleidoscope.
While maintaining the traditional technique and inherent story-telling quality of Miniature painting to lend a sympathetic voice to nature, I consider the climate crisis through the lens of entrapment and loss, hence exploring the notion of limitations. These limitations are addressed through the technicalities of the medium of miniature painting; a two dimensional genre that has always been used to represent a fourth dimension i.e. a perspective relaying multiple angles simultaneously as is believed to be viewed by God. In this mix of the second and fourth dimension, I started to paint within a 3D hexagonal form as opposed to a traditional rectangle, resulting in an exponentially skewed and layered image that tests the boundaries of Miniature Painting.
Photo credit: Mariam Hussain