Baseera Khan
Baseera Khan, Pricket Stand Base, Shaft, and Tray Pink, from Law of Antiquities, 2021, archival C-print, artist’s custom frame, 33 x 24 x 1. 5 inches . Edition 1/2 + I AP. Image Courtesy of the Artist and Simone Subal Gallery, New York. Photo: Dario Lasagni
Baseera Khan, Earrings with Attached Headdress Pink, from Law of Antiquities, 2021, archival C-print, artist’s custom frame, 33 x 24 x 1. 5 inches . Edition 1/2 + I AP. Image Courtesy of the Artist and Simone Subal Gallery, New York. Photo: Dario Lasagni
Baseera Khan, Unknown Berber Hammer Comb, Hair and Gloves, from Law of Antiquities , 2021, archival C-print, artist’s custom frame, 33 x 24 x 1. 5 inches . Edition 1/2 + I AP. Image Courtesy of the Artist and Simone Subal Gallery, New York. Photo: Dario Lasagni
Visual Description: For their Law of Antiquities series, the artist Baseera Khan photographed themself as close as possible to select objects from the Brooklyn Museum’s Arts of the Islamic World collection. The artwork titles describe what object is in the photo. Presented here are a series of three photographs:
Pricket Stand Base, Shaft, and Tray Pink, from Law of Antiquities, on the left, features a gloved pair of hands holding the pricket stand as Khan’s hands hover over it without touching. The object is held against a pink and black background.
The center photograph, Earrings with Attached Headdress Pink, from Law of Antiquities, features the metal object mounted against a flat support. The artist holds the supportive base against themself, as if pretending to wear the earring on their ear. A conservator’s hand wearing purple gloves appears to be picking up the headdress portion on the floor.
The photograph on the right, Unknown Berber Hammer Comb, Hair and Gloves, from Law of Antiquities, shows a gloved conservationist holding a Berber hair comb about an inch away from the artist’s long black hair. The gloves themselves are ornamented with colored nails and patterns.
Curatorial Description: For their Law of Antiquities series, the artist Baseera Khan photographed themself as close as possible to select objects from the Brooklyn Museum’s Arts of the Islamic World collection. The resulting scenes are both absurd and striking in their collage-like quality. One image shows a gloved conservationist holding a Berber hair comb, most likely from North Africa, hovering about an inch away from the artist’s hair. The gloves themselves are ornamented by the artist with colored nails and patterns, as if the artist made every attempt to extricate the object from the sterile museum setting. Together, the works call into question the assumed neutrality or secular setting of the American institution that deactivates such an object into anthropological display. What is being lost in the seemingly innocent act of collecting or coveting?
About
Baseera Khan is a New York-based performance, sculpture, and installation artist interested in materials, color, and their economies, the effects of these relationships to labor and family structures, religion, and spiritual well-being. Khan's public art commission, "Painful Arc, Shoulder High," remains on The High Line Park, NYC located by the Standard Hotel until summer 2024. Khan mounted their first museum solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York (2021-22), and mounted a solo touring exhibition for Moody Arts Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, Texas, and the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio (2022-2023).