City artist’s tribute to dad set for GoMA spot
AGLASGOW artist’s tribute to her father is one of the first works being donated to the city by an emergency fund set up to help museums through the Covid-19 crisis.
Rabiya Choudhry’s neon creation, which puts her dad’s name in lights, celebrates Glasgow’s Asian shopkeepers, classed as essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic. She explained: “Mazhar is my dad, a Pakistani immigrant who moved to Glasgow in the 1970s.
“I have almost lost him many times over the years due to poor health and accidents and so I was trying to make a record of him… to have a physical manifestation of him if he wasn’t here.”
She added: “As well as this, I wanted to celebrate him and the many immigrants that came to Glasgow in the 70s to set up businesses and are still keep that going.”
Dad (2018) is one of three works by Rabiya – the other two, Dream Baby Dream and Houses for the Holy, address mental health – which have been donated to the Gallery of Modern Art through the Contemporary Art Society’s Rapid Response Fund, following a crowdfunding campaign which raised more than £200,000.
They will form the centrepiece of GoMA’s exhibition, Domestic Bliss, struggling to when it reopens in October following the lifting of lockdown restrictions.
Rabiya added: “GoMA has, from my earliest memories, inspired me, so I am overwhelmed to have my work represented in their collection.”
Duncan Dornan, head of Glasgow Museums, said: “Choudhry’s work is personal and honest. Discussing issues such as anxiety, mental health, racism, guilt, family, joy and fear, it seems particularly appropriate at this time.”