Baseera Khan (born Denton, Texas, 1980). Braidrage, 2017–ongoing. Performance, duration variable. Photograph documenting performance at Participant Inc., New York, 2017. Courtesy of the artist and Simone Subal Gallery, New York. © Baseera Khan. (Photo: Maxim Ryazansky)
Baseera Khan (born Denton, Texas, 1980). Braidrage, 2017–ongoing. Performance, duration variable. Photograph documenting performance at Participant Inc., New York, 2017. Courtesy of the artist and Simone Subal Gallery, New York. © Baseera Khan. (Photo: Maxim Ryazansky)
Installation view, Baseera Khan: I Am an Archive. Brooklyn Museum, October 1, 2021–July 10, 2022. (Photo: Jonathan Dorado, Brooklyn Museum)
Baseera Khan (born Denton, Texas, 1980). Installation view, Privacy Control, 2018–20. Acrylic sheets, two-way mirror film, steel poles, vinyl, 98 × 96 × 18 in. (248.92 × 243.84 × 45.72 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Simone Subal Gallery, New York. © Baseera Khan. (Photo: Jonathan Dorado, Brooklyn Museum)
Baseera Khan (born Denton, Texas, 1980). Installation view, I Am an Archive, Speaker, from Bust of Canons, 2021. FMD (Fused Deposition Modeling), 3-D–printed acrylic, resin speaker grille, artist’s hair, dye, ink, magnets, steel rods, custom steel pedestal. Courtesy of the artist and Simone Subal Gallery. (Photo: Jonathan Dorado, Brooklyn Museum)
Baseera Khan (born Denton, Texas, 1980). Installation view, Snakeskin—Column Number 2, Number 6, Number 7, 2019. Pink Panther FOAMULAR, plywood, resin dye, custom handmade silk rugs made in Kashmir, India, each section 72 × 22 × 72 in. (182.88 × 55.88 × 182.88 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Simone Subal Gallery, New York. © Simone Subal Gallery, New York. (Photo: Jonathan Dorado, Brooklyn Museum)
Baseera Khan (born Denton, Texas, 1980). I Arrive in a Place with a High Level of Psychic Distress, (Blue), 2021. Chromogenic photograph and laser-cut acrylic, 62 × 37 in. (157.48 × 93.98 cm). Collection of Debbie and Mitchell Rechler. © Baseera Khan. (Photo: Stephen Takacs)
Baseera Khan (born Denton, Texas, 1980). Zakat (Donating 2.5% of Your Monetary Value Every Year), 2017. Monotone screenprint, 59 × 50.25 in. (149.86 × 127.63 cm). Edition of 4. Courtesy of the artist and Simone Subal Gallery, New York. © Baseera Khan. (Photo: Thomas Barrett)
Baseera Khan (born Denton, Texas, 1980). Jingle Johnny Processional Stand Pink from Law of Antiquities, 2021. Archival inkjet print, artist’s custom frame, 60 × 40 in. (152.4 × 101.6 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Simone Subal Gallery, New York. © Baseera Khan
Baseera Khan (born Denton, Texas, 1980). Mosque Lamp and Prayer Carpet Green from Law of Antiquities, 2021. Archival inkjet print, artist’s custom frame, 33 × 24 in. (83.82 × 60.96 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Simone Subal Gallery, New York. © Baseera Khan
Baseera Khan: I Am an Archive
October 1, 2021–July 10, 2022
Baseera Khan: I Am an Archive is presented as part of the UOVO Prize for an emerging Brooklyn artist. Baseera Khan uses their own body as an archive, often employing a variety of multimedia collage techniques to visualize the lived experiences of people at the intersections of Muslim and American identities, both today and throughout history. The exhibition debuts eleven new artworks, in conversation with key works made since 2017, that explore Khan’s body as a site of accumulations of experiences, histories, and traumas.
On view are rich and multilayered sculptures, installations, collages, drawings, photographs, textiles, and a video in which Khan investigates othering, surveillance, cultural exploitation, anti-blackness, and xenophobia within our public and private spaces—and proposes avenues for protection and liberation. The works express Khan’s interest in revealing the economics of goods and materials—such as oil, hair, architecture, and art—as commodities that create inequalities and otherness and that are historical and contemporary drivers of global change.
Khan is the recipient of the second UOVO Prize, which recognizes the work of emerging Brooklyn artists. As part of the prize, they receive a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, a commission for a 50x50-foot art installation on the façade of UOVO's Brooklyn facility, and a $25,000 unrestricted cash grant. The mural is currently on view.
Baseera Khan: I Am an Archive is curated by Carmen Hermo, Associate Curator, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, Brooklyn Museum.
The UOVO Prize is made possible by
Major support for this exhibition is provided by the Brooklyn Museum's Contemporary Art Committee.