Artwork inspired by Roy Lichtenstein.
By Raif Karerat
When Maria Qamar started posting her artwork to Instagram, she had no idea her account would become a regular destination for young people of South Asian ancestry, let alone catch the attention of mainstream brands and advertisers.
The 24-year-old Pakistani-Canadian’s artwork, inspired by the aesthetic of Roy Lichtenstein, offers a satirical and unique insight into desi culture.
“I’m taking what already exists [in our culture] and laughing about it like an inside joke,” Qamar told the BBC.
Prominently featured in Qamar’s pieces are the “interfering aunties,” who the artist uses as a lens through which to scrutinize certain aspects of South Asian culture.
“They’re women in your family who gossip about your life for no reason. They pretend to be your mother or talk about you to your mother about what you are up to,” Qamar said. “They want to know your personal things like bowel movements or blood type. Sometimes they plot to get you in trouble. Some of them even say they can use black magic… They go to extremes to make your life difficult,” Qamar continued.
Qamar began her project after she was laid off from her advertising job just under a year ago.
“I moved over from Pakistan to Canada when I was a child and wanted to create something that would merge these two cultures together. I thought I needed some ‘desi-ness’ in my work,” she explained. “I started doing generic henna designs but lots of people were doing that. It was also too abstract. I wanted to create art with a message — something people would get straight away.”
Qamar, who has begun exhibiting and selling her work through her Hatecopy brand, says the snowballing interest in her cultural expression has led her to change the way she works on her art and that she now treats the enterprise more like a business.
“However, I refuse to do straight up cultural appropriation e.g. making Marilyn Monroe into an ‘auntie’. I won’t take that step,” she adamantly stated.