Sara Gulamali: 💚

Burrard Arts Foundation presents 💚 [green heart emoji] by Sara Gulamali. Gulamali’s work explores a post-colonial navigation of the hyper-visibility or invisibility of Muslim women using green screen technology. For the artist, green screens and the colour green more broadly reference the notion of otherness and the “othered body” within her practice—a nomadic space that can become anything or transport you anywhere. As we encounter the ubiquitousness of screens and technologies, Gulamali’s interest in digital spaces, and how screens can become proxies for the body, increases. The green screen becomes not only a tool but a material to perform in and create with.

Throughout her practice, Gulamali takes inspiration from her family’s diasporic history and its relation to her own identity. As a visibly Muslim, female, British Pakistani based in Vancouver, Gulamali considers her own journey and how these parts of herself influence her being. While working with these themes can produce introspective and personal work, Gulamali also considers how individuals from marginalized communities may embody “otherness” by asking “how does it make us feel, especially when navigating spaces that aren’t always made for us in mind?”

This exhibition, presented as part of Capture Photography Festival, features work created during Gulamali’s 2022 winter residency at BAF—reflecting on the artist’s recent relocation to Vancouver, and how she in turn, navigates this new beginning.