Vessel II

Born in Peshawar, Pakistan, Meherunnisa A is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer with an innate fascination for nature and its relationship with human experience. Her work attempts to perpetuate the legacy of the applied arts by infusing it with subtle minimalism, creating a contemporary aesthetic that resonates with the traditional techniques of Pietra Dura that she employs. From an early age she was surrounded by art- the fabled bazaars of the historic city of Peshawar were a few kilometers away and many an afternoon was spent rummaging through antique shops with her mother and siblings. These childhood experiences piqued her interest in traditional art forms which was further crystalized through her position as conservation architect at the prestigious Aga Khan Historic Cities program. Meherunnisa has carried Studio Lél, the artistic collective that her mother Farhana founded three decades ago in her garage, to an internationally acclaimed studio that has exhibited at major shows including the London Design Biennale, Design Miami, Milan Design Week, London Design Fair, Sharjah Art Week, Dubai Design Week and featured in leading art & design publications such as Financial Times, Asia Society, Vogue, Elle Decoration, Architectural Digest and Harper’s Bazaar. In 2019, she was awarded a grant by the Gates Foundation.

“The series is a reinvention of traditional craft techniques in the modern context, and the works are both deeply rooted in the past while maintaining a contemporary aesthetic. Taking inspiration from vessels from the Gandhara civilization, Andy Warhol’s depiction of the “ordinary”, and the flawless transition of materiality in nature, this body of work is about re-tracing the past in order to create something novel and yet timeless.

In addition to natural stone, the series is tied together by the use of copper, a symbol of spirituality, in the age of the Buddhist Gandhara civilization of which modern day Peshawar was once the capital city. For this, Meherunnisa collaborated with a fifth-generation copper workshop in Peshawar to hand craft vessels that carry both time and experience symbolized by Peshawar. Through her practice, she is re-constructing identity, both for herself and for the communities with whom she collaborates. Meherunnisa see her art as a way of piecing together fragments of memory and experienced history.