No Father–No Frontier

Twelve Gates Arts, Philadelphia | March 7–April 26, 2025

Curated by Protyasha Pandey featuring Aiza Ahmed & Humaira Abid

“No father—no frontier is an examination of the relationship between family and state, and their subversions by the female gaze in exile. All three of us, removed from our points of origin, in the tout-monde–the West is in us, we are in the West. Displacement affords us the luxury of viewing distance. Drawing on the feminist argument for family abolition, Humaira Abid and Aiza Ahmed deliver critiques of paterfamilial regimes, and lay claim to personhood made outside of the established paradigms of lineage and citizenship.

Aiza Ahmed’s works are acute observations on masculinity and oppositional gazes in this political theatre of the absurd. Drawing from, and drawing with the cartoon sensibilities and biting satire of Awadh Punch is her bold claim to a lineage of satire borne from the same moment that bore us our collective nation-making myths. High camp is a serious business, and humour and joy salve us so we may confront despair and rage.

Her drawings give back to these sparse individuals the self(s) that are erased in favour of the ostentatious theatrical performance of nation-state. In stripping away the colours, the regalia, and accoutrements of these costumed actors, she renders them virtually indistinguishable from the celebratory bandwālā and bājewālā at a union. Herein lies the humour, ke patā hee nā chale batwārā hai yā bārāt. [The relic of a painful separation is virtually indistinguishable from the celebration of a union]”—Protyasha Pandey