Cade Tompkins Projects presents and exhibiton of new work by Sophiya Khwaja. Khwaja’s recent pieces use her familiar iconography, this time encased in embroidery hoops not only for their obvious association with women’s work, but also for their shape. The hoops trap the figure in a never ending bind, where intricate patterns are drawn and weaved. Within the confines of the circle, missiles threaten, needles prick and thread cuts apart and then reassembles the stoic woman.
A second body of work expands the imagery of the embroidery hoops into a life size accounting of the female form. This works delves more deeply into issues relating to female censorship and objectification, where here many identifying characteristics like the face and hands are absent. These drawings are three-dimensional, as they are built onto a foam core structure. The female body is restructured with missiles comprising the backbone, or metal needles fastening everything together.
Sophiya Khwaja received her MFA in Printmaking from Rhode Island School of Design (2007) and her BFA in Printmaking from the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan (2003). Khwaja is the recipient of an artist residency at the Vermont Studio Center (2016), a Fulbright Fellowship (2005-2007) and is a selected artist for Campus Art Dubai’s (CAD) 4.0 Core Program. Her work is in the collections of the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library, Yale University, CT; UNESCO-Andorra, Ordino, Andorra; RISD Museum; and The United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan (USEFP), Islamabad, Pakistan.
