- Senior Thesis Project: Survival Ritual (A Voice With Three Echoes Prays Thrice As Hard) (2022): Survival Ritual (A Voice With Three Echoes Prays Thrice as Hard), is a life-sized tryptic drawing that seeks to punctuate ideas of multiplicate identity, simultaneous religious expression, and archetypal states of emotional being. With this work, Armaan employs large paper cutouts, effigies marked with monochromatic renderings, to outwardly project the cerebral scene of different “self-states'' cooperating and tending to one another for the overall survival of a synthesised host: the self as a whole. Survival Ritual asks the question: When one identity is fragmented into several, how then do those fragmented parts reckon with their own isolation from one another? What mental rituals must be performed in order for there to be some sort of overall function nevertheless? Religious reference provides the visual framework within which this concept is articulated, with direct allusions to trinity, rosary, misbaha, tassels and heirloom jewellery. There is an intentional dissonance represented, however, in the way quotidian garments and accessories are used as makeshift veils, habits, and robes. This is a blurring of the line between the historically religious and the immediately available, resulting in an awkward middle aesthetic that speaks to strained relationships with prayer and religion. Also featured in the work are specific, significant pieces of heirloom jewellery. For Armaan, these serve as access points to ancestral lineage and the metaphysical support of familial guides, addressing the ways in which religion is felt to be most significant through the lens of personal culture and history.
My intention is for this thesis project to act as the culmination of the self portraiture I've explored up until the point of its completion, spanning from 2019 to 2022, and working through themes of religion, image, identity, and personhood.
Survival Ritual (A Voice With Three Echoes Prays Thrice as Hard), 6'6"x5', coloured pencil on mixed media paper.
Detail 1: Trinity
Detail 3: Blue
Detail 2: Pink
Detail 4: Orange
- Expeditions in Self Portraiture: Echoes of an Image of the Self (2019-2022) This collection of self portraits, varying in degrees of realism and concept, are a product of a sudden shift I experienced coinciding with my departure from what I considered to be my core teenage years. This shift became clear to me as I suddenly felt an intense pull towards self portraiture—a particular practice I had done my best to avoid for all my years leading up to that shift. I had previously considered self portraits to be difficult to wrap my head around, as they required a particular type of reflection that I didn't have the confidence to approach. Once I realised that I still hadn't shaken this gravitation towards the self portrait after completing one, I decided I would carry on to complete a small concentration of sorts focusing on nothing but myself. It felt necessary, and like something I just had to get out—a sort of reckoning with my own form, culture, and mentality. Unlike most concentrations, which tend to bear at least some visually consistent elements throughout them to carry on a visible theme, this collection ended up being less visually interconnected and more emotionally. One commonality between each piece, even despite differences in stylistic approach and medium, is that each one is an interpretation of a specific landmark in the geography of my daily thought processes (both those of mundanity and those of great significance). Each one takes a second to dissect a particular emotional experience I needed to channel and release, in a way I had yet to throughout the years prior. The interesting thing about these pieces that I didn't even notice until I had completed them that I continuously cycled back to this concept of duality, or depicting interactions between duplicates of myself, likely in order to demonstrate an internal dialogue. I'm still not entirely sure why I felt so inclined to depict myself as a product of some sort of mitosis, as I am still unsure as to why I needed so desperately to complete these self portraits, but what I do know is that that uncertainty seems to define this collection overall. The works, as they stand individually and collectively, show evidence that there was no time for stopping to reflect along the way, they were simply created as signals of the internal happenings I felt compelled to release. Taking notes from my most familiar cultural imagery, my emotional experience as an ongoing and ever-developing one, and even my own stylistic tendencies, I feel that these works (as varied as they may be) are the clearest reflection of myself I have created yet.
Tears Burn Upon My Skin, 16x20 inches, gouache, coloured pencil, oils, ink
The Red Ribbon (Precarity), 12x18 inches, gouache, coloured pencil, ink, glue.
Taking Notes (What Is It To Study Yourself?), 18x24 inches, notebook paper, coloured pencil, pen, marker, glue.
Ritualization of Self (Mirror) 8.1x14.4 inches, digital media.
Faith as a Puzzle (Reconciliation). 14x20 in, pen & marker.
Under the Veil. 18x24 in, charcoal & graphite.
Punctured by Faith (Target), 15x19 in, fabric dye on cotton sheet.
Blue Contortions. 9x12 in, digital media.
Legibility of Self (And Lack Thereof), 16x16 in, cempasĂșchil dye and gouache on paper.
Symbology Map, 16x20in, graphite pencil and highlighter on paper.
Fallen Twice Over. 16x20 in, graphite pencil.
Pearly. 16x20 in, digital media.
Reciprocity/Malice. 16x6 in, digital media.
- Narrowed Legacies: The Mythos of Feminine Tragedy (2017-2019) This is a collection of works I completed as my first fully-realised concentration over the course of my high school years, which I chose to centre around my cultural background. My root intention was to do what I felt most compelled to, which was use my artistic practice as my own personal method of connecting with my cultural roots—on my own terms and in my own way. Before completing these works, I had considered my artistic style or vision as entirely separate and foreign to my heritage as a half-Mexican, half-Pakistani individual. It was important for me to dedicate these works not only to adapting Mexican and Pakistani imagery to what my style was in high school, but to highlighting historical stories, myths, and folktales about women. Putting aside the visual richness of my two cultures, the thing I couldn't help but note was the lack of feminine narratives I had been provided with among the many generationally passed stories I was told. Especially after observing how this lack of female narratives completely mis-aligned with the clear examples of strong women I was raised around in my family, I felt an intense urge to create a visual space that honoured women within my same cultural contexts. After completing my research and proceeding to illustrate the folktales I could find that centred around women's stories in history, one thing stood glaringly clear: Nearly every story that had to do with women, in most any capacity, saw the woman in pain or suffering some sort—usually resulting in a tragic death or unhappiness. Whether it was a story of betrayal, loneliness, or conflict, there seemed to be a mutual fixation and obsession with placing women in the most uncompromising positions possible. And so, after this point came to make itself inevitably clear through my research, the collection instead came to pose a central question regarding gender roles and history-building in both Mexican and Pakistani culture: Why is the feminisation of tragedy and despair so aggressive in these histories, and what does that say about the deliberate positioning of women in a position that does not favour them in tradition and society? Moreover, what does a direct visualisation of this tragedy beg of the viewer?
Sassui, Princess of Doves. 16x20 in, ink pen & alcohol marker.
Entre los CempasĂșchiles. 16x20 in, ink pen + coloured pencil + marker.
Las Reinas del Cielo. 16x20 in, ink pen & alcohol marker.
El Espejo de los Dioses. 16x20 in, ink pen + coloured pencil + marker.
- CAPTIVATING/CAPTIVE (2018-2019) This collection of works was an attempt to speak to the effects of feminine beauty standards on women's mental well-being and confidence, with a constant motif of "imposed beauty" being personified as a shadowy demon figure. I chose a crimson sort of red as the central colour thread (supported by a powder blue hue) to communicate this sense of danger or violence that is often overlooked in regards to beauty, as it's widely (inaccurately) believed that these standards can't have real, tangibly negative effects on women. The demonic shadow meant to represent beauty standards' imposition is coded to be masculine in an effort to reflect on the male gaze's central perpetuation of these standards, in order to produce an image desired by said gaze.