Dhee Kahani (Daughter's Tale) View 1

Hira Butt’s work explores the place of South Asian women within marital and domestic spaces. This work has developed as a result of personal experience and conversations with married Pakistani women during a recent trip to Pakistan by the artist. Butt explores the layered complexity of traditional culture and how it can be used to exploit the meaning of relationships. Her piece centres on golden bangles which are often gifted to Pakistani women on their wedding day, as a symbol of trust and value. The bangles are unassuming, seen by Butt as having become part of South Asian women’s personal lives. Butt reworks these bangles, intertwining them with pieces of ‘dupatta’, an adorned red scarf that forms part of the bride’s traditional wedding attire. This process of reworking changes their function, raising questions about the wedding day and the life promised that may not materialise. This work was part of the 'Thirteen Ways of Looking' exhibition (2 October - 13 December 2020)