Mehmil Nadeem (b. 1996) in Multan is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is inspired by her ongoing journey of critiquing the reliability of memory as an archive, through a unique image- making technique, which is inspired by her personal and collective archives. She completed her degree in BFA Visual Arts from Beaconhouse National University in 2019, from where she passed with Distinction in her department and was also a recipient of Dean’s Honor List and merit-based scholarship during her time there. She has been a part of multiple Group shows taken place in Pakistan and was also a selected resident at Tasweerghar artist residency, 2019. She has been selected for 16TH EMERGING TALENT 2020, VM Art Gallery at Karachi and is currently training in ‘ Multani Kashigari’, a traditional painting technique from the Institute of Blue Pottery Development, Multan. She is currently working between Multan and Lahore.
‘Memory is like Wikipedia, you can change it, so can others’- Elizabeth Loftus We believe memory to be one of the most vital notions of our existence that is responsible for building our identity and the way we look upon the world. It is a universal language which we think works like a recording device that you play it back to record what exactly happened. But according to my research and personal observation, memories are highly complexed, easily influenced and disrupted by each other. It is an ephemeral language that is continually renewed My practice revolves around this unstable, moving, complex phenomenon, critiquing on it’s reliability as an archive and the way it’s controlled by external influences and time. Going through childhood, familial and collective archives becomes an essential part of my process as it allows me to create new scenarios in a form of storytelling, in accordance to my emotional understanding of people, the places, the loss I have felt and also the unknown which entails within the Photographs. Another crucial aspect of my practice is the interest in kinetics and the making of mechanical photo sculptures, which further becomes a critique on the relationship of a man and a machine in today’s time ,where memories no longer belong exclusively to us. Combining different mediums becomes an image making technique for me, which allows me the hold of putting fragments to create a new altered memory, which for me becomes the most authentic archive.
EDUCATION
2020 - Training at the Institute of Blue Pottery Development, Multan
2019 - BFA, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, Pakistan
2015 - A-Level, Bloomfield Hall Upper Branch, Multan , Pakistan
2013 - O-Level, Bloomfield Hall, Multan, Pakistan
2020 - A five-week online course, MODERN ART AND IDEAS, authorized by The Museum of Modern Art, offered through Coursera,
2020 - Group Exhibition, 16TH EMERGING TALENT 2020,
VM Art Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (forthcoming)
2020 - Group Exhibition, Multan Arts Council, Pakistan (forthcoming)
2020 - Online Exhibition, DOUBLE TAP, The Museum of Scroll
2020 - 16th ANNUAL YOUNG ARTISTS EXHIBITION,
Lahore Arts Council Alhamra, Pakistan
2019 - Group Exhibition, DASH, Islamabad Art Fest
2019 - Group Exhibition, MUSALSAL, Lahore Arts Council Alhamra, Pakistan
2019 - Degree show at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore
2019 - Artist Residency at Tasweerghar, Lahore
2019 - Graduated with Distinction at Beaconhouse National University,
Lahore, Pakistan
2019 - Merit based scholarship, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore
2019 - Certificate Of Achievement, on the best project in the course of
Major studio III, Beaconhouse National University, Lahore
2018 - Work selected for UNISEF at Beaconhouse National University,
Lahore, Pakistan
2017-2019 - Dean’s Honour List, Beaconhouse National University,
Lahore, Pakistan