Sarah Naqvi is an explicitly political, young feminist artist who started a residency at De Ateliers in Amsterdam this season. Her work combines heritage techniques from her native country India, with observations, feelings and activist statements on the cultural and religious practices in India in recent years. Small embroidered vulvas, masks, watercolours, tapestries and large, naturally dyed cottons foreground tabooed topics in her country, such as menstruation and unrealistic body ideals, taking a bold stance against orthodox conversation and braving outraged responses. Even though the women in her pictures seem threatened and affected by fear, they do not appear scared. Dark and conscious they seem of their fate, almost fighting back through the picture, embedded in symbolic signs. AKINCI is proud to present a selection of her works for the first time in The Netherlands.
