“Being Between” is an art exhibit celebrating the works of Lali Khalid, a photographer from Pakistan. She moved to New York in 2007 for a Masters of Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute before returning to Pakistan in 2009. In 2011, she moved back to the United States and has been in Marquette since 2015. Work on these photos started in 2013, but most have been taken in the last two years. Her work in this collection features a dupatta.
“The dupatta is traditionally used to cover the head when you pray…It is a religious symbol but also a high fashion thing,” Khalid said. “People with different mentalities use it differently. I use it because it reminds me of home, of my mom, of my dad and of a life that I once lived. It can be seen as last shreds of my culture that I take with me. It is a part of my culture and home that I am forgetting. It’s coming to me or floating away.”
Khalid includes many different settings in her exhibit, though most are from the U.S. “The shots are taken in different places all over the the U.S., with some being from Pakistan. The vastness of landscapes in this country make me feel connected and lost at the same time.”
Her attraction to both America and Pakistan is clearly apparent in each photograph. They seem to contain an essence of conflict, a simultaneous desire for both cultures and locations. Emotions are depicted candidly, unadulterated. The notion of uncertainty, hesitation in the decision she has made, emanates from the photos taken. With that conflict, however, there are notes of whimsy, of happiness. The landscapes behind her are sometimes forgotten amongst the sea of humanity that is in her shots. The human condition that her photos depict shows that we aren’t always present. Ignoring the present for the past or the future isn’t bad, it isn’t negative. It’s only human.
The exhibition is a candid peek into Khalid’s life. The shots contained here have captured a phantom following her; the ghost of her past life and of her decision to move to America. In some shots she’s embracing it, in others she’s conflicted by it, but the exhibition as a whole really captures the nature of life and how we as humans react to it. Whether we focus on the past, on our decisions or not, our presence in the world is felt regardless of where we are in our mind. Lali Khalid will be talking about her influences, her work and artistic practice in her upcoming lecture this Friday at 3 p.m. in the Rosza Gallery A-space where her exhibit is on display — free and open to the public. In case you miss the lecture, her exhibit will be available until September 22.
