Seher Shah
Dust: Matter which has disintegrated.
Remains of fragmented elements.
An accumulation of sediment.
Woven Air: Absence held in air.
An ethereal apparition.
A material weaving the visible and imagined.
There is an unknown quality that materials hold by weaving histories and cultures speaking to each other. I thought of this material resonance when I first read Agha Shahid Ali’s poem, The Dacca Gauzes. His words evoked memories of my maternal family and the cities they inhabited; a cartography between the real and imagined. I found myself tracing lines across the subcontinent; connecting Chittagong to Chennai and Kochi and, across the Arabian Sea, to the port of Karachi. Cities connected by the memories of those whom I hold dear.
Memories, submerged in history, grasp for their own measurements of understanding. Of something no longer ours to hold.
Of Dust and Woven Air are studies into absence and memory through drawing, printmaking and poetry. A poetry of loss and erasure revealed in line, form and materiality on paper. Working with dust and its accumulations, I draw on Bengal muslin (gauze), the ethereal cloth of Agha Shahid Ali’s poem.
Seher Shah, 2025
Seher Shah, A Separation, 2024
Graphite dust, charcoal and ink on laid paper
Composed of 9 panels; Drawing size: 66 x 96 cm each
Seher Shah, The Weight of Dust (1), 2024
Graphite dust, charcoal and ink on laid paper, 138.5 x 100 cm
Seher Shah, The Weight of Dust (2), 2024
Graphite dust, charcoal and ink on laid paper, 138.5 x 100 cm
Seher Shah, The Weight of Dust (3), 2024
Graphite dust, charcoal and ink on laid paper, 138.5 x 100 cm
Seher Shah, The Weight of Dust (4), 2024
Graphite dust, charcoal and ink on laid paper, 138.5 x 100 cm
Seher Shah, Waves (I), 2024
Concertina handmade book with graphite dust, charcoal and ink on laid paper, 33 x 135 cm
Seher Shah, Waves (II), 2024
Concertina handmade book with graphite dust, charcoal and ink on laid paper, 33 x 135 cm
Seher Shah, Waves (III), 2024
Concertina handmade book with graphite dust, charcoal and ink on laid paper, 33 x 135 cm
Seher Shah, Waves (IV), 2024
Concertina handmade book with graphite dust, charcoal and ink on laid paper, 33 x 135 cm
Seher Shah, Waves (V), 2024
Concertina handmade book with graphite dust, charcoal and ink on laid paper, 33 x 135 cm
Seher Shah, Variations in Grey (16), 2022
Graphite dust, charcoal and ink on paper
Paper Size: 23 x 30 cm; Drawing Size: 14 x 18.3 cm
Seher Shah, Variations in Grey (18), 2022
Graphite dust, charcoal and ink on paper
Paper Size: 23 x 30 cm; Drawing Size: 14 x 18.3 cm
Seher Shah, Variations in Grey (22), 2022
Graphite dust, charcoal and ink on paper
Paper Size: 23 x 30 cm; Drawing Size: 14 x 18.3 cm
Seher Shah, Variations in Grey (23), 2022
Graphite dust, charcoal and ink on paper
Paper Size: 23 x 30 cm; Drawing Size: 14 x 18.3 cm
Seher Shah, Variations in Grey (25), 2022
Graphite dust, charcoal and ink on paper
Paper Size: 23 x 30 cm; Drawing Size: 14 x 18.3 cm
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes, 2024
Portfolio of 12 Photogravures and 3 Letterpress prints
Paper: Velin Arches and Magnani Paper with chine-collé on Kinugawa Ivory and Rayon Unryu
Photogravure Paper Size: 48 x 34 cm; Plate Size: 24 x 18 cm
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes (Woven Air), 2024
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes (Running Water), 2024
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes (A Hundred Years I), 2024
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes (In History), 2024
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes (The Hands of Weavers), 2024
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes (The Looms of Bengal), 2024
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes, 2024
Portfolio of 12 Photogravures and 3 Letterpress prints
Paper: Velin Arches and Magnani Paper with chine-collé on Kinugawa Ivory and Rayon Unryu
Photogravure Paper Size: 48 x 34 cm; Plate Size: 24 x 18 cm
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes (River Lines I, evening), 2024
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes (River Lines II, morning), 2024
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes (River Lines III, night), 2024
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes (Hundred Years II), 2024
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes (Dawn), 2024
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes (Absence), 2024
Seher Shah, The Dacca Gauzes, 2024
Portfolio of 12 Photogravures and 3 Letterpress prints
Paper: Velin Arches and Magnani Paper with chine-collé on Kinugawa Ivory and Rayon Unryu
Photogravure Paper Size: 48 x 34 cm; Plate Size: 24 x 18 cm
THE DACCA GAUZES from the HALF-INCH HIMALAYAS by Agha Shahid Ali.
Published by Wesleyan University Press, 1987. Used by permission.