Naked Punch

An encounter with Seher Shah's work bears an invocation to possibilities of re-enchantment in a disaffected world. Through the minutest detail of mark-making to the construction of expansive urbanscapes, Shah's work, in drawings, photographs, prints, and sculptural objects challenges preconceived notions of the spatial-visible and the temporal-historical facets of modern life. Lines burst into fractals, familiar motifs, repeated endlessly, morphing through continuous manipulations; patterned multiplicities become visibly obstructed by the overbearing presence of powerful monolithic shapes.

Between the infinite tonalities of gray––from delicate graphite strokes to the immense black gouache––Shah is able to render monochromatic realms of intricacy with masterful strokes. From the micro-signification of individual markings and inscriptions, to the colossal presence of national monuments and high-modernist infrastructure, Shah weaves together lines and symbols, maps and iconographies, structures and landscapes, to create eerie locales of ambiguity where viewers are struck by the uncanniness of our multiple origins and countless possibilities.