Beauties of Lucknow, installation at Massey College, Toronto, 2023
The Beauties of Lucknow, 2023 / Reactive dye printing on linen and silkscreen printing on iridescent vinyl, installed as panels on existing light fixtures / "The Beauties of Lucknow is an album of photographic portraits taken in 1874 by Darogah Abbas Ali, a photographer and municipal engineer for the British-controlled government of India. The famous sitters, known as tawaifs, assumed multiple roles as singers, courtesans, dancers, and actors performing the popular Urdu play and opera Indar Sabha, a love story between a fairy and a prince. The women portrayed exerted unusual influence and independence, amassing vast private wealth. When the British took control of the region, they dismantled the traditions of the royal court, and the courtesans, perceived as threatening symbols of resistance, fell from favour. Nearly two decades later, when Abbas Ali took their portraits, it was an act of restitution, a refutation of prejudice, and a celebration of beauty. As if studying the faces of loved ones in a cherished album, Husain holds a séance with these historical images, unfolding the archive into three-dimensional form as a set of screens for the light fixtures that illuminate the hall. Reading and rereading Abbas Ali’s photographs, Husain repeats elements for emphasis and introduces iconography that stretches the time and space of the source. The Beauties are conjured back to life in the here and now. Many of these pictorial additions—books, records, and domestic ornaments—are drawn from Husain’s personal remembrances, linking autobiographical elements to the reading of the photographic archive. Co-mingling historic precedent with contemporary aesthetics, Husain unfurls a radiant design that breathes new energy into the space. He transforms the room while highlighting some of its intrinsic properties—the hall’s function as a meeting place, a site of celebration, and, above all, a space that holds the murmurs of a continuous dialogue across time.'' Sarah Robayo Sheridan
photos by Toni Hafkenscheid / curator Sarah Robayo Sheridan / fabrication Laura Honsberger / advise Jeremy Laing / thank you John Massey and the team at Massey College