Tazeen Qayyum – Thursday Night Guest – November 13, 2025

(Submitted by Sherida Etherington)

Tazeen Qayyum (b.73) is a contemporary Pakistani/Canadian artist. Primarily trained as a miniature painter of the South Asian and Persian tradition, Qayyum continues to explore new materials and processes through mediums such as drawing, installation, sculpture, video and performance. Repetition, rhythm, balance, and geometry are methodological devices that allow her to create artworks that are visually complex and offer a multi-layered understanding of material and techniques used. Drawing from complex issues of belonging and displacement within a sociopolitical and religious context, her art is a way for her to navigate identity and beliefs living in the diaspora.

Tazeen’s presentation was absolutely fascinating. She presented examples and information about 15th to 18th century art from Eastern traditions, including Indian, Persian and Pakistani. These techniques are not taught in Western art history. They are mostly miniature because they were book illustrations. They are often referred to as Mughal art. They have similarities to Medieval art but there are a lot of differences. For example, western perspective was not used – various layers showed different views of the subject, flat colours were used, no shadows, and simple unbroken lines. There was an element of decoration using geometric patterns and calligraphy and gold. The subjects were illustration of famous poems & literature, royal portraits, scenes from daily life, religious, mythology, and history subjects.

The rulers of the time were avid patrons, creating and supporting ateliers where groups of people worked on each painting. The paper was made by hand – 3-4 layers of paper were glued together and then the surface was glued and polished to make it very smooth and shiny. Colours were ground in seashells using gold, lapis lazuli and other minerals. The images were often very stylized and included a lot of symbolism. The flat colour was painted on stroke by stroke using hand-made brushes which were often only one strand of squirrel hair. All colours were mixed with zinc white to create opaque paint.

The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto contains examples of some of this Mughal art.

In the late ‘90’s/early 2000’s a school was created in Pakistan to revive painting in this style. Students were encouraged to paint contemporary subjects as well as sculpture, performance art, etc. in this style. Tazeen studied these methods extensively.

In her modern practice, Tazeen often Urdu words, writing them in circles to make large circles of words. For example, the painting showing behind here used the word Peace repetitively. She often creates this art as a performance.

She also uses insects, in particular the cockroach, in her work. There are many layers of meaning to the cockroach image. They are not native to North America but came in through the slave market and immigration. They are very resilient, like immigrants. The more you try to get rid of them the more they survive. For example, they are feared, hated and considered repulsive. She paints them in patterns often with entomological pins. She uses labels which provoke thought about what is beautiful and what is grotesque – thoughts about our culture – such as quotes from medicine bottles, or quotes about civilian tragedies.

A few examples of the Mughal art and of her modern practice are below.

Tazeen’s Website: http://tazeenqayyum.com/hopeisthethingwithfeathers/

https://www.tazeenqayyum.com/gridportfolio/