SAUD BALOCH
Biography
I was born in Nushki, Pakistan. I studied Fine Arts at Balochistan University before moving to Lahore in 2008 to undertake a BFA at the National College of Arts (NCA). I majored in Sculpture and graduated with a Distinction in 2013. My BFA Thesis, Sustained (2013), investigated the impact of physical and metaphorical burdens on the human form. My later sculptures and drawings have continued to enquire into this theme, exploring the effects of historic and geographical inheritances, and of contemporary political developments, through the manipulation of new materials and techniques. After graduating, I taught Sculpture at NCA; completed commissions; was selected for the prestigious residency at the Sanat Initiative, Karachi. Since then, while in the UK, I have participated in Arts Council funded projects, exhibited as a solo artist, undertaken residencies funded by organisations such as BALTIC, and had my work collected by Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA). I continue to exhibit in the UK and Pakistan. My work has been reviewed and discussed in national and international publications. In Spring 2022 I will be participating in the Kooshk Residency in Tehran, Iran.
Artist Statement
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My work investigates physical and metaphorical burdens on the human form through sculpture, drawing and installation.
My starting point is the place in which I was raised: Balochistan in Pakistan. Yet the artworks I make are always the product of research into the history of this region; the contemporary political developments that shape current events, issues, debates and perceptions; and into cultural practices — modes of storytelling, methods of making and shaping visual experiences — that deepen and extend my own art practice.
I work with a range of materials and processes, including fabric, clay, stone and gilding, to create sculptures that resemble both human shapes and landscapes in figurative and abstracted forms. Clay makes me think of earth, mud and the origins of life, whereas gold is the colour of hopes and riches, symbolic of an inheritance which is as much a burden as a benefit. The stones I incorporate in the work are found in a range of locations including the beaches and hills of England’s post-industrial North East, where I now live. They provide a point of connection with the natural forms and geology of Balochistan.
The labour-intensive process of setting down layer upon layer of miniature pen circles in my large scale drawings has become a kind of rumination: a means to reflect on the physical and human geography of the resource-rich but economically deprived part of the world that remains my home.
CV
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EXHIBITIONS:
2020
MIMA Collection, groupe show, MIMA Middlesbrough, UK
2019
Nowhere To Land, solo show, Pineapple Black, Middlesbrough,UK
Encounter, group show, Pineapple Black, Middlesbrough, UK
2018
Heterotopia, group show, Saabat Gallery, Middlesbrough,UK. Fool's Gold, solo show, Sanat Gallery, Karachi Pakistan.
The Perfect Gentleman, group show, Project Art Divvy and Rossi & Rossi, London,UK
Middlesbrough Art Weekender, group show, Middlesbrough, UK
I, Too, Am A Part of this History, group show, Faqir Khana Museum/Lahore Biennale, Lahore, Pakistan
2017
Beyond The Shadow of a Doubt, solo show, Hartlepool Art Gallery, UK
2016
Nightfall, installation, Navigator North/Centre Square, Middlesbrough, UK
Under the Dust, solo show, Sanat Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
2015
Yak Baloch Kahol e Hashar, group show, Gallery 6, Islamabad, Pakistan
2014
Anomalous, Residency show, Sanat Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
2013
Left, Right and Centre, group show, Taseer Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan
2013
Philips Collection Workshop, group show, Lincoln Corners, Islamabad, Pakistan
Or Something Like It, group show, Satrang Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan
NCA Degree Show 2013, group show, Zahoor ul Akhlaq Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan
PRIZES:
2008 Culture and Democracy (1st prize) Zahoor Ikhlaq Gallery, NCA, Lahore, Pakistan
2008 Transformation (2nd prize) Zahoor Ikhlaq Gallery,NCA, Lahore , Pakistan
RESIDENCIES & PROJECTS:
2014 Artist Residency (1 month, fully funded) Sanat Inititive, Karachi, Pakistan
2016 Emerging Artists’ Bursary/Mentoring Scheme Stellar Projects/Navigator North, Middlesbrough
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
2016 “Every Baloch is Equally Dear” Seminar/Artist talk Teesside University, Middlesbrough
2017 Building Bridges — Ekphrasis Creative writing workshop Hartlepool Art Gallery, Hartlepool
2018 Artist talk Saabat Gallery, Middlesbrough, UK
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SELECTED PRESSdecember-2014_news
‘Reframing “Violence”, Transforming Impressions: Images in Contemporary Pakistani Visual Art and English-Language Fiction’ by Madeline Clements (2014), Wasafiri, 29 (1). http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02690055.2014.861632
‘Art Review: Saud Baloch’ by Nusrat Khawaja, Newsline, September 2016. http://newslinemagazine.com/magazine/art-review-saud-bloch/
'Art and Hell in Balochistan' by Chintan Girish Modi, The Bayside Journal, September 2016. https://medium.com/@chintan_connect/art-and-hell-in-balochistan-764be3e6f296
