"Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?"
Artist
Ambreen Butt
(born in Pakistan, active in the United States, born 1969)
DateMay 1997
Mediumcollage with acrylic, gesso and ink on paper on wood panel
Dimensionspanel: 61 x 61 cm (24 x 24 in.)
ClassificationsCollages / Assemblages
Credit LineCharlotte E.W. Buffington Fund
Object number1998.120
Label TextAmbreen Butt was trained in traditional Persian and Indian miniature painting in her native Pakistan before coming to Boston in 1993 to study art from a contemporary American perspective. Since making that transition, her work has attempted to reconcile an apparent stylistic and narrative gulf between her past and present cultures. While her subject matter is extremely personal at its core, Butt’s art intentionally wrestles with broader issues of gender, power, intellectual freedom, human rights, and cultural stereotypes. In this image, an isolated passage of detailed miniature painting sits within an expanse of hairline stripes and cryptic columns built of delicately handwritten Urdu script torn from pages of the artist’s journals. An Eve-like female nude covers her exposed torso and looks up from the sheltering greenery in which she hides. Is her isolation self-imposed or symptomatic of social restrictions? In what space and time does she exist? Can her voice be heard?ProvenanceBernard Toale Gallery, Boston, MAOn View
Not on view
