Transformation as an Artistic Strategy in the Work of the Artist Anwar Saeed

The Pakistani artist Anwar Saeed is best known for his collages, colour-intensive paintings and works of different printing techniques which often explore masculinity and probe the controversial issue of same-sex desire in Muslim South Asia. He is therefore no stranger to self-censorship. Saeed has often had to alter his works so that they could be shown in Pakistan, and has generally learned to tell stories in order to survive. These stories had to be camouflaged, so the motif of the mask along with the complex othering of the self through the staging of animal-human relations entered his artistic iconography and came to play an important role in paintings, collages, drawings, prints and photographs. Many of these works suggest the artist’s concern with conflict between religious and social expectations and gender roles, but they also make a connection with cultural and political identity formation in a country with a short, but very conflicted, history.