Samir Mahmood

Bio

I am a Galway-based visual artist with a BA in Contemporary Art Practices degree. I am recipient of the Academic Achievement and the inaugural Mary Lavelle Burke Bursary Awards at GMIT Mayo (2020). I worked as a medical doctor in Pakistan before moving to Ireland and completed my PhD in Health Promotion from NUI Galway in 2014.

In early 2021 I secured funding to pilot an Augmented Reality based project in a public space in Galway County through Artist Support Grant.Later I also received Agility Award from the Arts Council to develop a prototype for a Virtual Reality project. I am part of a group of four Sample Studios Cork artists who received funding from Sample Studios Cork for a forthcoming exhibition based on cross-cultural collaboration.

Artist Statement

The ideas for my practice come from research on experiences of migration, citizenship and spirituality. My art practice borders between planned and spontaneous. I work with mixed media engaging with various materials, textures, objects, video, text and unfinished artworks. The work produced through this engagement is in the form of drawings, paintings, notes, art objects, video, by- products of the process, etc. assembled, juxtaposed and curated. I endeavour to rework and bring to the fore unnoticed/overlooked things, transform old work with new elements, using my immediate surroundings and day-to-day life as a source.

My artworks comprise of digital photo-collages, painting and mixed reality.

In the photo-collages, with my knowledge and experience of medicine and public health, I focus on themes of body, transformation, transcendence and cultures surrounding queer existence. I also focus on struggling with addiction and rehabilitation.

The Indo-Persian miniature paintings done on Wasli insert the queer male body into the traditional narratives of Mughal and Raj era art. These themes in my paintings queer the grammar of patriarchal homophobic society. These also indicate an act of disobedience through depiction of a naked male body in the genre of manuscript art.

Website www.ranasamir.com

Instagram @ranasamir

Membership: Backwater Artists Network