Huma Mulji


Huma Mulji is a Pakistani contemporary artist. Her works are in the collections of the Saatchi Gallery, London and the Asia Society Museum. She received the Abraaj Capital Art Prize in 2013. Her works focus on social issues and phenomena and evoke discussions within the society.

Life

Huma Mulji was born in 1970 in Karachi, Pakistan. In 1995, she completed the BFA studies at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi, Pakistan, and in 2010, the MFA studies at the Transart Institute in Berlin, Germany.
From 2003 to 2015, she was an Associate Professor at the School of Visual Arts, Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan. In 2016, she was a fellow at the Terra Foundation for American Art. She was Visiting Artist at the Goldsmiths' College, London, UK in 2015 to 2017. In 2017, Mulji received the Nigaah Art Award.
She is currently Senior Lecturer at the University of West of England, Bristol, UK, and Lecturer, BA Fine Art, at the Plymouth College of Art, UK.

Works

Mulji's artworks were exhibited at Art Dubai in UAE, 10th Gwangju Biennale in Gwangju, South Korea, 56th Venice Biennale in Italy, Karachi Biennale 2017, in Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art in Spain, Asia Society Museum in New York, Saatchi Gallery in UK and Project 88 in Mumbai, India. Her solo exhibitions include High Rise, in Elementa Gallery, Dubai, UAE in 2009, Crystal Pallace and Other Follies in Rothas Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan in 2010, Twilight in Project 88, Mumbai, India in 2011, and A Country of Last Things in Koel Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan in 2016.
Her work includes sculpture, photography, drawing, and painting. Mulji's pieces of art address social inequality, short-sighted approach to development, tensions of asynchronous development in the era of mass urbanization and absurdities it produces. They often evoke discussions on social phenomena.
Mulji's scultptural installation Arabian Delight refer to the aspects of economic migration, to the anticipations of the migrants and corresponding reality. The piece consists of a taxidermy camel stuffed into a suitcase and addresses also the Arabization of Pakistan. It was presented at Art Dubai in 2008, but was removed after a few days to avoid controversal topic. The removal, however, brought even more publicity to the artwork. The piece was bought by Charles Saatchi and became part of the collection of the Saatchi Gallery.
The title of her installation Ode to a Lamppost That Got Accidentally Destroyed in the Enthusiastic Widening of Canal Bank Road, exhibited at the Karachi Biennale 2017, refers to a central road in Lahore where Mulji lived. Its widening caused protests. This artwork comments heavy development that becomes obsolete when the priorities shift. During the Biennale, this work raised controversy. Mulji placed the pole so that it was difficult to navigate in the space. Aziz Sohail noted that it was Mulji’s point to make a parallel to social inequality and to how the life of people is affected during the developmental projects. Hamna Zubair wrote: