Thandi Sarak

Farida Batool often works with lenticular printing, a process which gives her work a sense of dynamism, intrigue and metamorphosis. Lenticular printing is a technology in which a lenticular lens is used to produce images with an illusion of movement, change or three dimensional depth as the image is viewed from different angles. Batool's lenticular works are politically charged and as such are representative of the socio-political climate of her native Pakistan and often describe the fear many citizens endure. Having studied and practiced abroad in recent years, Batool has subsequently engaged with issues of being a part of the diaspora and the associated feelings of guilt, alienation and nostalgia for her homeland. These competing, discombobulating sentiments are mirrored in the very medium of her lenticular prints. Their double-faceted layering afforded the viewer a duality of experiences, and perspectives, where nothing is as it first seems. Thandi Sarak, refers to a shopping mall where several protests were staged in 2008-9. This work shifts and morphs between, state police and innocent ghostly children at play, creating a jolting juxtaposition of violence and innocence, life and loss.