Artist's Statement: The Process

I believe in bias and all its relevancy.  Everything I convey will be tainted by my perception.  And what I perceive comes from the melding of generations and generations of perceptions that comes from different countries, different people, different societies, different economies.  Everything is different.  I can't remove that from what I create.  And I will not apologize.  I will not apologize because what you are getting is my reality, the reality that expresses freedom and self understanding.  The best creations are those that contain images of reality, of someone's reality.  My reality is my hyphenated self, the self that I am not ashamed of nor am I confused about, nor am I trying to hide it.  I am a Muslim, I am Pakistani, I am Indian, I am American, and so is my art, everything that I create.  Everything I understand comes from the little hyphen between every different identity.  My identity lies in a hyphen and so does my art.

 

I am currently working on a short film about Jihad.  I am working with Muslim youth in the New York college community.  The essence of the film is understanding what Jihad really is.  Is it a word you heard on the news hidden behind the gaudy veil of terrorism?  Is it what you heard your parents talking about? Is it something you read about?  Whatever the case may be, my film deals with the true understanding of Muslims and Islam and if  its really what the news portrays it as.  This understanding and knowledge is absolutely necessary. And what better witnesses than young, American-Muslims who come from various different backgrounds and mentalities?

 

My work is inspired by the candid and what can emerge from the candid.  There are many things that can resurface from my creative pieces; however, the essential and underlying fact is that there is nothing simple and shallow, our observances hold very little validity and are soaked in our temperament.