Noorain Inam | A dream that visited every night

27 January - 4 March 2023

indigo+madder is pleased to present A dream that visited every night, the first solo exhibition of London-based artist Noorain Inam.

In the new body of work, Inam uses narratives and storytelling to evocatively render ideas related to the passage of time, pursuit of love, and manifestations of fear and heartbreak. Taking her lived experiences as a departure point, the works play between fantasy and fact, to create uncanny and enigmatic scenes that intrude on our sense of reality. The paintings appear like surreal dreamstates, imbued with a sense of mystery and containing layers of meaning.

Animals and objects, sometimes arranged around human figures, take on symbolic nuances, a device used in allegorical Mughal paintings and European prints from the 16th and 17th century. Very interested in personal space and the domestic environment, she creates surreal interiors or exteriors of houses surrounded by tempestuous phenomena. Frequently, human presence is indicated through a piece of furniture, placed within an atmosphere filled with potent occurrences and symbology - lightning strikes, objects on fire, venomous scorpions, all charge the landscape and blur the line between animate and inanimate. In 15 sleepless nights a surreal scene plays out. The room is aflame, with a single chair positioned in the centre of the panel. A metaphor for solitude, personal power and the domestic environment, the empty chair adds mystique to the scene and indicates both the presence and absence of bodies. The wild, hypnotic power of fire is powerfully captured to alludes to the cycle of destruction, regeneration and renewal. A tarot card, representing new beginnings, is face-up on the chair and the figure of a phoenix seems to rise out from the flames. The work explores personal spaces and the interior psychological landscape of emotionally difficult periods of life - sleepless nights spent when faced with tough decisions, and the catharsis needed to move on and move forward.

In several paintings, broad fields of colour create perspective-warping sections of action, energy and suspense. There is either layering of colours to achieve a soft build-up of intensity and depth, or lightly pigmented washes of colour that drip and overlap, to lend a delicate transparency. An atmosphere of stillness and drawn-out tension pervades the works. The works of surrealists Joan Miro, Dorothea Tanning and the eerie tales of Mexican author Amparo Davila have had a profound influence over Inam’s work. The latter’s uncanny, fantastic stories of the everyday, incorporate a feminist take on the horror aesthetic. Within the rich, surreal, destabilising interior spaces of Inam’s work are embedded deeply personal stories that narrate the anxiety and drama that infuses the life of a young woman today. She poignantly references her own move to a big city, her relationship with two worlds – her origin country and her new one. Several works describe the trials and tribulations of finding connection and meaning, the search for a sense of belonging and constant reconstruction of identity.

My watch tells the time a millisecond faster than yours appears to be a dreamlike scene based in a haunted, mysterious setting. The domestic interior is alive with unexpected images and juxtapositions. Symbolic imageries are spread across the room. A delicate, fragile necklace hangs tenderly off a rocking chair to signify belongings left behind, loss of naivety and isolation. Inam’s works often incorporate an element of humour too, by incorporating symbology related to commonly meted out advice, and proverbs related to love, romance and finding ‘the one’. A frog awaits on the steps waiting to be kissed. References to knights in shining armour also often appear in works. Character traits are depicted through symbols - a bright red chilli, a framed photo of a peacock-headed, robe-clad man, all inspired from real and fictitious characters.

In Man ate poisoned peach and went to sleep, Inam explores moments of attachment and vulnerability. The composition brings together diverse cultural references and motifs related to romantic relationships. She references Laila Majnu, a tale of Arab origin, which much like Romeo and Juliette, depicts star crossed lovers and unfulfilled longing. Hybrid creatures with human faces and peacock bodies are painted at the base. The inclusion of peacocks, which have been potent symbols of love in South Asian art across different time periods, also humorously refers to the cultural phenomena of peacocking with bright clothing and character, to attract female attention. All these references, come together to depict ideas of modern romance and intimacy that come with huge expectations, but may oftentimes be far from ideal, leaving us longing for authenticity. In An irresistible and indiscriminate urge to sting, a dynamic scene is unfolding. It seems someone has just left the room in a rush, leaving everything in a state of disarray. A glass of milk spills over, next to a seductive, glowing pink scorpion. The border, like the hashiya frames of miniature works, features a recurring horse-riding figure. A portal in the upper section of the painting, opens out into a scene ablaze with fire and lightning, adding further drama to the atmosphere.

Nuanced connotations abound in the works, where exterior and interior landscapes collide to elicit an emotional response. Inam’s paintings bring together a transnational perspective, to reinterpret ideas of space and belonging. She builds phantasmagorical worlds that play with our sense of the real and unreal. This worldbuilding however, also becomes the radical act of creating space for oneself, with vulnerability, zest and hope, when filled with a sense of displacement.

Noorain Inam (b. 1998) lives and works in London. She received a BFA from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in 2019 and an MFA Painting from Slade School of Fine Art in 2022. Her solo A dream that visited every night opened at indigo+madder London in January 2023. Selected exhibitions include Distortion and Dissonance, Where’s the Frame?, 2022, London; Shining Light, Bloomsbury Festival Prize Winner Presentation, London, 2021 and Collective Cohesion, Koel Gallery, 2020, Karachi.

SELECTED WORKS