Nimra Bandukwala (she/her)
Artist
Website: nimrabandukwala.com
Instagram: @nimrabandukwala.art
Nimra (she/her) is a Pakistani visual artist and maker of crafts using foraged and found materials. Her arts practice spans from creating natural inks and dyes with plants, earth pigments with rocks, and sculptural pieces using foraged and found materials.
Born and raised in Karachi, she has lived in Italy, England, and Canada over the past decade. She is now based in Cambridge, on the traditional territories of the Attawandaron, Haudenosaunee, and Anishinaabe peoples.
She facilitates community-engaged art workshops with folks of all ages and abilities. Nimra is also an Occupational Therapist, OT Reg. (Ont.), and supports children and adults to engage in meaningful activities.
More about her nature-based art and paintings can be found on her website at www.nimrabandukwala.com and on Instagram @nimrabandukwala.art.
More about Reth aur Reghistan can be found on www.sculpturalstorytelling.com and on Instagram @sculpturalstorytelling.
You can order a copy of Women Wide Awake: Stories, Sculptures and Poems from Sindhi Folklore here.
Reth aur Reghistan (Sand and Desert)
Reth aur Reghistan is a multidisciplinary art project started in 2019 by two Pakistani sisters Nimra and Manahil that explores folklore from Sindh through sculpture and poetry. In 2019, we researched folklore from Karachi and Sindh and explored these stories through poetry and sculpture. We use foraged and reclaimed materials, such as pieces from our dadi’s saari, beads from a broken tasbeeh, dried flowers, and shells, to bring to life characters and scenes from these ancestral tales. We embrace memory as our creative medium and use pieces from the past to tell stories of the present.
As Gujarati-speaking people whose families settled in Karachi in 1947 after the creation of Pakistan, we lacked access to stories about the indigenous Sindhi culture, history and folk traditions. Through this project, we’re interested in exploring how folklore is passed down, remembered, erased, and reclaimed.
In 2022 we published a chapbook Encounter with sculptures and poetry of supernatural creatures from Pakistani folklore. We just published a book titled Women Wide Awake: Stories, Sculptures and Poems from Sindhi Folklore with Mawenzi House Publishers. In June Reth aur Reghistan will have a two-week residency in Toronto with Jumblies Theatre + Arts where we will be creating and exhibiting sculptures, facilitating community-engaged art workshops, and having a closing performance.
We are eternally grateful for the support we have received from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Mississauga Arts Council and City of Ottawa to make this project come to life.
Barkat (Abundance)
Barkat (برکت) is a recent project I am developing that will share knowledge and skills of nature-based artmaking with individuals from historically marginalized communities through workshops and skill shares. In collaboration with the BIPOC Outdoor Gear Library in Guelph, this project will bring together newcomers and the BIPOC community through sustainable artmaking, storytelling, and the outdoors.
Art by Nimra
I have been painting and crafting ever since I can remember. I come from a lineage of women who crafted with what they had, appreciated and grew plants, and valued the lives and stories of materials. I create my art from this spirit of continuing cycles. Cycles of the materials themselves, how they came to be, and how they transform into art. Cycles of learning and sharing through past, present and future - with a deep gratitude for the artistic mentors and teachers who have taught and inspired me. These include Sheniz Janmohamed, Sharada Eswar, Ruth Howard, and Tilke Elkins. More recently, I have been creating slow paintings and sculptural pieces with foraged plants, rocks, and shells. Through artmaking and intimately connecting with these materials I explore folklore, ecology, and therapy/healing. My community-engaged arts practice collaborates with participants to share our unique experiences and knowledge. I embrace the spirit of abundance, warmth and wholeness to working with community.
Kathak Dancers Around Sun (2023) – Gold pain and natural inks made with avocado pits, mulberries, onion skins, bark.
Markhor (2022) – Earth pigments, natural inks made from buckthorn berries, yellow onion skins, and sumac berries.
Bundle Dyed Silk Scarves (2022) – Naturally dyed with rust, safflower, red cabbage, hibiscus and cochineal.
Mai Kolachi (2020) – Sculpture from Women Wide Awake: Stories, Sculptures and Poetry from Sindhi Folklore. Part of Reth aur Reghistan project.
Encounter (2022) – Chapbook of sculptures and poetry based on Sindhi folklore. Part of Reth aur Reghistan project.