Manuscript of Silent Conversations

With deft manipulation of the elements of art and principles of design, Aisha Abid Hussain’s visual lexicon delves into sophisticated minimalism, while being thoroughly grounded in traditional miniature technique. Inspired by Mughal-era manuscripts in which text served to enhance aesthetic pleasure as well as communicate, the artist’s interdisciplinary inquiry created a fusion of research-based process and studio practice, resulting in textual interventions amongst subtly complex compositions. The history of manuscripts within the South Asian idiom reveals illumination – visual enhancement of the written word – to be a crucial element, alongside rhythm, movement, pattern, colour, and other principles, of a successfully communicated message. The artist’s book – a three-dimensional and portable log of creativity, is also a time-honoured tradition. Aisha Abid Hussain skilfully combines the two, utilising their mutability and potential as source for infinite exploration. Text rendered in traditional pardakht, contrast with bold curvilinear shapes, vivid washes of colour and subtly rendered forms, brought to life with with a variety of mediums. This series, seen from the vantage point of a layered narrative, transforms into a nuanced, complex yet seductively refined elegance indicative of the brilliance and maturity of the artist’s creative vision.