Bordering between abstract and socio-political, Shaheen Sultan Dhanji’s photography, painting and writings are at once striking to readership. Her art transforms the humble into amazing objects of desire.
Sultan’s large scale of black and white photographs are at once contemporary, mingled with socio-political messages. Themes of war, poverty, women and sanitation, globalisation and various pressing subjects are provocatively captured on film. She has had some of her works exhibited in Ottawa and Toronto Canada.
Luminous yet subtle abstract and figurative paintings reveal a fusion cultural influences, and experiences endured in Sultan’s journey in assimilating between life in Africa and North America.
Her art punctuates and pierces a wave of questions of human dignity, colossal loss of wars, life of a courtesan and major other social themes.Sultan is senstive to light and colour. Her work can be calssified with using strong oil base, and lots of blues, yellows, red and burnt orange.
Apart from visual art, Sultan is a writer for several newspaper. Her subjects include politics, literature, poetry and eastern philosophy. She does not shy away in dialoguing concerns facing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention the genocides in Congo. A constant worker, Sultan is convinced that tenacity and perserverance are the deepest, firmest pillars to create the enigma out there.
JR is grateful that Dhanji has shared the images of her two recent paintings that are shown above. The write up has been adapted from a review of her works.
