Shifting Ecologies

Mehwish Iqbal’s work uses Persian miniature techniques—particularly Sîah-Qalam [1]—combining intricate lines with gouache, ink, and watercolour washes. Her works also feature tactile, visceral surfaces formed through various printmaking techniques and hand embroidery on paper. These layered processes produce a dense visual matrix, evoking the interconnectedness, survival, and transformation between human beings and their environment.
The exhibition Shifting Ecologies reflects the artist’s ongoing engagement with issues of migration, identity, and material storytelling. Developed during her residency at the Cité internationale des arts, in Paris, he work draws inspiration from the complex sociopolitical landscape shaped by the diversity of ethnic communities and migratory flows. It explores the shifting relationship between humans and the natural world —moving through terrains of displacement, memory, and resilience.
These shifting ecologies echo the human condition — both fragile and resilient — with a particular focus on the roles women play within these evolving environments.

Mehwish Iqbal (Australia) is in residence with the support of Art Gallery of New South Wales

[1] Siāh-Qalam is a term referring to both the genre of paintings or drawings done in pen and ink (also known as qalam-siāhi), and to the painter or, more likely, painters (more commonly known as Siāh-qalam) of a particular collection of such pen and ink drawings, preserved principally in the albums at the Topkapı Palace Museum’s library in Türkiye.