{"id":248,"date":"2025-05-07T20:46:48","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T20:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studbud.dcreate.domains\/flogdump\/?p=248"},"modified":"2025-07-03T19:06:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T19:06:00","slug":"artist-statement-hack-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studbud.dcreate.domains\/flogdump\/flog\/remixes\/artist-statement-hack-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Lives Spent – Artist’s Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cOur Lives Spent\u201d is a remix of queer artifacts in the style of Pakistani truck art. This unique form of painting is often used to decorate large trucks, buses, and even rickshaws, as an expression of the drivers\u2019 identity. However, my design subverts the expected themes and religious motifs that are prevalent in Pakistani-Punjabi truck art, involving quotations and portraits of famous Muslim saints and poets. Instead, Our Lives Spent<\/em> displays suppressed artifacts of queer Muslim history as well as contemporary works that rebel against this erasure. These artifacts originate from various centuries, spanning the cultures of the Islamic world while confronting Pakistan’s tyrannical laws – a death penalty for homosexuality and blasphemy- and widespread hatred towards LGBTQ+ identities that roots its justification in religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are multiple components stitching the canvas of Our Lives Spent. <\/em>First, I authentically adapted truck art’s floral patterns, color themes, and grid-based layout. In doing so, I carry the embedded artifacts into the lens of a population accustomed to this art form, invasively so. Next, I <\/em>remember the stories of same-sex relationships amongst Muslim poets and saints, like Madho Lal Hussain, Rumi, and Bulleh Shah, through their own poetry. Stories that would never be discussed publicly let alone painted on trucks. I also quoted lyrics from the Lebanese band Mashrou Leila who were banned for singing about socioreligious norms that stifle LGBTQ voices. Although founded, and somewhat intended, for the Middle-East, their sorrow and revolt undoubtedly targets the sociocultural norms of Pakistan as well. To illuminate this comparison further, I selected lyrics that challenge the oppressive structures common to modern Islamic societies, as well as reflecting the remix’s overall argument, and translated them into Punjabi. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pakistan speaks various languages that can be roughly mapped to its provinces. I grew up in Punjab, inside Pakistani-Punjabi manifestations of the same psychological fences that Mahshrou Leila sought to tear. This is why I chose Punjabi and spotlighted the province. Despite this choice, however, Our Lives Spent <\/em>is my tribute to anyone around the globe who recognizes the ache of living behind such fences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, I incorporated paintings by the Iranian artist Alireza Shojaian. His work depicts male beauty and homosexual desire in conjunction with Islamic artifacts, both as critique and unifying representation. My remix comprises only two media of sources: text and images. This is not only a choice to authentically adapt the truck art form, which similarly uses only text and images, but also a message that a handful of verses and paintings is enough to destabilize the entire narrative that justifies our lives spent in cages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Style<\/strong> Inspiration (Pakistani Truck Art)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This work is a non-commercial, class project by Awais Rohan Abid for DIG 401: Hacking, Remixing, and Design, at Davidson College (Spring 2025). All excerpts of song lyrics, poetry, vector graphics, and paintings in this remix are used under the doctrine of Fair Use (17 U.S.C. \u00a7 107) for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship, and educational remix as part of the course assignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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