Huma Mulji

Huma Mulji was born in 1970 in Karachi, Pakistan.^[1] In 1995, she completed a BFA at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi, Pakistan, and in 2010, received an MFA from Transart Institute in Berlin, Germany.^[6][7][8]

From 2003 to 2015, she was an associate professor at the School of Visual Arts, Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan.^[9] In 2016, she was a fellow at the Terra Foundation for American Art.^[10] She was Visiting Artist at the Goldsmiths' College, London, UK in 2015 to 2017.^[9] In 2017, Mulji received the Nigaah Art Award.^[11]

She is currently Lecturer at the University of West of England, Bristol, UK,^[12] and Lecturer, BA (Hons) Fine Art, at the Plymouth College of Art, UK.^[8]

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Mulji's artworks were exhibited at Art Dubai in UAE,^[13][14] 10th Gwangju Biennale in Gwangju, South Korea,^[15][16] 56th Venice Biennale in Italy,^[15] Karachi Biennale 2017,^[17] in Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art in Spain,^[18] Asia Society Museum in New York,^[19] Saatchi Gallery in UK^[20] and Project 88 in Mumbai, India.^[21] Her solo exhibitions include High Rise, in Elementa Gallery, Dubai, UAE in 2009,^[14] Crystal Pallace and Other Follies in Rothas Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan in 2010,^[22] Twilight in Project 88, Mumbai, India in 2011,^[23] and A Country of Last Things in Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan in 2016.^[22]

Mulji's work examines the relationship between culture, context, and cognition. Drawing on the visual culture of her South Asian heritage, she explores the politics of place,^[24] addressing themes of existence and the habitual perception of one's surroundings.^[25] This intermediary state is continuously played out in Mulji's work, which incorporates sculpture, painting, photography, and installation.^[26] The city, the everyday, and the overlooked serve as primary subjects in these artworks, which are often described as deliberately awkward.^[27]

Her sculptural installation Arabian Delight (2008) refers to the aspects of economic migration, to the anticipations of the migrants and corresponding reality.^[14] The piece consists of a taxidermy camel stuffed into a suitcase and addresses also the Arabization of Pakistan.^[28] It was presented at Art Dubai in 2008, but was removed after a few days to avoid a controversial topic. The removal, however, brought even more publicity to the artwork.^[29] The piece was bought by Charles Saatchi^[2] and became part of the collection of the Saatchi Gallery.^[3]

The title of her installation Ode to a Lamppost That Got Accidentally Destroyed in the Enthusiastic Widening of Canal Bank Road (2011–2017), exhibited at the Karachi Biennale 2017 (at Pioneer Book Store),^[22] refers to a central road in Lahore where Mulji lived. Its widening caused protests. This artwork comments heavy development that becomes obsolete when the priorities shift.^[30] During the Biennale, this work raised controversy.^[31] Mulji placed the pole so that it was difficult to navigate in the space. Aziz Sohail noted that it was Mulji's point to make a parallel to social inequality and to how the life of people is affected during the developmental projects.^[30] Hamna Zubair wrote:

In this way, the lamppost at Pioneer Book Store may just turn out to be the most authentic work at KB17, in that it organically sparked a much-need conversation about the privilege and social stratification the art world must navigate.^[31]

• Chiu, Melissa; Genoschio, Benjamin (2010). Contemporary Asian Art. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-23874-5. OCLC 901248255.
• Baler, Pablo (2013). The next thing : art in the twenty-first century. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 978-1-61147-451-0. OCLC 828884554.