Sameer Farooq /

Pouf, Sausage, Weight, Arc

HERE: Locating Contemporary Canadian Artists, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto. Curated by: Swapnaa Tamhane

A bag is a veil is a pillar, Zalucky Contemporary, Toronto. Curated by: Juliana Zalucky

Vessel, Art Gallery of Burlington. Curated by: Su-Ying Lee and Suzanne Carte.

Ceramic sculptures in unglazed paper clay and porcelain.

Ceramic mentor: Kelli Rae Adams
Assisted by: Adam Williams, Alex Yeung (Studio Alex Yeung)

A series of hand-shaped ceramic objects are fashioned by Sameer Farooq to imitate the forms and shapes of museum-quality packing material used to protect and wrap precious artifacts for shipping and storage as found in museums worldwide, including the Aga Khan Museum. These clay objects are arranged in an archival method, placed in a vitrine which mimics museum display conventions. The objects are physical metaphors for what is missing, the invisible hand of those who work in museums, and represents how archives struggle to give us the full picture of a lived experience.

Farooq felt a kinship between his desire to complicate seamless notions of pluralism in culture with these vital, present packing materials through representing what is not seen, what is missing, or what is not captured. His objects explore ideas of cohesion and fracture, entanglement and exclusion, integration and erasure through creating objects that reflect the invisible hand of museum workers: the evidence of their presence is in the materials and choreography of the objects. (Swapnaa Tamhane)

Pouf (based on tissue paper), unglazed paper clay, 2017. Photo: Sean Weaver Pouf (based on tissue paper), unglazed paper clay, 2017. Photo: Sean Weaver Pouf (based on tissue paper), unglazed paper clay, 2017. Photo: Sean Weaver Pouf (based on tissue paper), unglazed paper clay, 2017. Photo: Sean Weaver Sausage (based on sausage weight), unglazed porcelain slip, 2017. Photo: Sean Weaver Mosaic (based on broken archival boxes), unglazed paper clay, 2017. Photo: Sean Weaver Installation view at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada, 2017. Photo: Aga Khan Museum Installation view at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada, 2017. Photo: Sameer Farooq Installation view at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada, 2017. Photo: Sameer Farooq Installation view at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada, 2017. Photo: Sameer Farooq Installation view at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada, 2017. Photo: Sameer Farooq Installation view at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada, 2017. Photo: Sameer Farooq Installation detail at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada, 2017. Photo: Sameer Farooq Research image (conservation department) at the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto, Canada, 2017. Photo: Sameer Farooq