WHAT’S THE STORY?
WITH a childhood spent in Girvan and Govanhill, a Glaswegian mother and a father from Pakistan, artist Rabiya Choudhry has always felt stuck in the middle between two cultures.
It is one reason her breakthrough solo exhibition is called COCO!NUTS! The expression is a derogatory term for people of colour who behave as if they are white but Choudhry’s use of it is an attempt to reclaim it and make it less damaging.
“I’m interested in how language is used as a mechanism of power,” she told The National. “I’m trying to take it and reclaim it because what do you do with difficult stuff – you talk about it.”
One of her paintings depicts her mother as a white goddess and is emblazoned with the words “Mother Mother Paki Lover”, an example of the type of racial abuse the family suffered.
“She was a white woman converting to Islam and that was challenging for people,” said Choudhry. “It was challenging for the Muslim community in Govanhill and the rural community in Girvan. I felt a little bit got at and for a kid growing up that was hard. I felt alienated from everyone and that I didn’t belong anywhere. I still feel like someone in the middle of somewhere – maybe the middle of nowhere.”
AND HER ART?
BORN in Glasgow in 1982, Choudhry graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2006 with a first class degree in Drawing and Painting. Described as “one of the wildest and most distinctive artists to come out of a Scottish art school in many years”, she has since exhibited both nationally and internationally.
However, her path has not been easy and she says she still feels a strong sense of alienation. Her father worked variously as a shopkeeper and waiter while her mother was a cleaner on split shifts, working early in the morning and late at night to fit in with looking after Choudhry and her three brothers.
“I grew up in a household where there was not a focus on culture,” said Choudhry. “The culture I was familiar with was the cinema, cartoons and comic books like the Beano. The Daily Record was our newspaper and I grew up reading sensational headlines. I worried about things like the Gulf War.”
Painfully shy, she found art was a way of expressing herself.
“I used to make people laugh with little cartoons. My mum encouraged me because she thought I had a gift. Her dad, who was from Carluke, was an artist although I don’t think he made a living from it. It was just something he did in his spare time.”
WAS PURSUING HER DREAM DIFFICULT?
AS her parents were busy making ends meet, Choudhry often had to look after her little brother so led a fairly insular life until she left for art school.
“I was excited about it but I did find it pretty antiquated,” she said. “I had some tutors that were really supportive but generally I felt I was fighting against them a little.
“I do feel alienated by the visual art world. I don’t understand a lot of the language of visual art – I feel confused by it. I remember going round with my dad at my masters degree show and he was laughing his head off. One artist put coffee cups on the ground and he found it hilarious that someone would do that. I could not explain it and I do feel a lot of visual art does not communicate effectively.”
One of the problems, she says, is that the working class are not represented widely enough in art institutions or other positions of cultural power.
“We need more diversity,” said Choudhry, who worked in a variety of part-time jobs while trying to pursue her artistic career.
“I think there is a mistrust of the creative class, of elitist culture. The trouble is that if you don’t represent people of all backgrounds in organisations then it just becomes a bunch of posh twats in the arts.
“Solving that is not so easy because there is the challenge of why people are not going into the arts. It’s not an easy life. You get a voice but it is so challenging why would someone from a deprived background want to do it? How is anyone meant to pay for a studio for example?”
WHERE CAN WE SEE HER WORK?
CHOUDHRY’S solo show is being held at the Transmission Gallery in Glasgow in September. It will feature a selection of her trademark paintings as well as experiments into new forms of text-based media, textiles and painted sculptures exploring themes of faith, race, identity and politics.
Her work specifically references her personal experience of the South Asian diaspora and cultural displacement in Scotland, although it is leavened with dark Scottish humour.
“I feel I am getting a bit more on track,” said Choudhry. “I am trying to show my story and an alternative view of the world.
“I’m stuck in the middle between two different cultures – that has been difficult and continues to be difficult in a world that feels even more divided.
She added: “I’m not feeling great about the world just now. My work looks pretty crazed and quite delirious and does shout out ‘panic’ but there is still a sense of humour. It’s important to have that because if you don’t you feel pretty desperate. I’m trying to find light.”
WHAT’S MAKING HER ANXIOUS?
ONE of the subjects depressing Choudhry at the moment is Brexit.
“I don’t want it to happen. It’s also made me question separating in general. I voted yes to independence in 2014 but it does feel like we are more divided. Things are getting worse. Does anyone know what is going to happen? You have to wonder what the agenda really is.
“Having said that I would probably vote yes again as I don’t feel we are being represented. People feel really failed by the larger political parties and there is no way forward for them. I come from a family of Labour voters but my mum and dad have turned their backs on them because they are not being represented.
“I think we are a really progressive nation and I feel we really could lead the way. People that are leaders now are making a mess so maybe even though we are tiny we could make a difference.”
COCO!NUTS! is at the Transmission Gallery from September 14 to October 20.
www.transmissiongallery.org/
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