Seher Shah was born in Karachi in 1975, and has lived in Belgium, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The convergence of Islamic iconography with Western styles in Shah’s work reflects this transnational upbringing. At the same time, the multicultural symbols embedded in her work resist fixed definition, allowing room for a multiplicity of interpretations. Shah describes her work as a “language in flux,” considering historical narratives to be in a constant state of transmutation (J. Dhar, ‘Monuments of Mind: Seher Shah,’ Art Asia Pacific, July 2011, accessed January 2019).

In the large scale works from Shah’s 2008 series Monumental Fantasies-Impermanence, “the spectacle of authority is palpable and dominant, and offered in the guise of shadowy military formations, portrait busts of unknown figures and architectural monuments. Stark geometrical polygonal constellations abstract the monolithic force of authority beyond any particular cultural formation. Shah’s work suggests that no matter how entrenched power might appear, it is nevertheless immersed in a contrary process of evaporation. But equally, her work also serves as a reminder that the afterimage of colonialism as a phantasm of power persists long after its actual disappearance” (I. Dadi and R. Elias, Lines of Control: partition as a productive space, London, 2012, p. 208).

Here, the title refers to the illusive stability of history, emphasizing interactions between shifting spaces rather than the intrinsic meaning behind them. In this work, the looming monumentality of public memory converges with the intimacy of the individual. The subtlety and intricacy of the linear patterns directly confronts the overwhelming emptiness of the black voids and stands in distinct contrast to the scale of the work. The starkness of the white lines against the background, combined with the large format of the work, creates a sense of theatricality and spectacle unique to Shah’s practice.

Trained as an artist and an architect at the Rhode Island School of Design, Shah initially joined an architectural firm specializing in large-scale urban projects. Reflecting this background, her drawings appear to be born from the amalgamation of architectural techniques and artistic sensibility. The composition of Monumental Fantasies- Impermanence I takes the form of an urban skyline dotted with structures superimposed with silhouettes of people that look like sculptural portrait busts. National and cultural symbols such as flags, mosque-like domes and images of angels merge fluidly into the lattice patterns, hinting at the evocative sociopolitical imagery underlying her practice.

Shah’s work has been featured in several international exhibitions, including the 2022-23 edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. It is also part of many international institutional collections including those of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Brooklyn Museum in New York, and the Devi Art Foundation in Delhi.