Mehwish Iqbal in ‘A Soft Touch’ at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art

8 Jul 2023

A Soft Touch an innovative exhibition featuring ten contemporary artists from diverse positionalities, including feminist, queer, migrant, and decolonial perspectives whose works engage with the material ‘softness’ of textiles while embodying empowerment and resistance. Curated by Sophia Cai, the exhibition challenges traditional perceptions associated with the phrase ‘soft touch’ and reimagines it as a strategy to challenge assumptions on agency, tenderness, and care.

Iqbal’s multidisciplinary practice incorporates printmaking, painting, textiles, sculpture and installation. Her work examines the geopolitical scenarios giving rise to refugee and migrant diaspora, power monopolies, hybrid identities and their complex reception in foreign environments. She actively engages with various communities to generate works that respond to the vulnerabilities and survival strategies of marginalised people in present and historic contexts.

Artists include: Soraya Abidin, Anney Bounpraseuth, Andrew Chan, Paula do Prado, Kait James, Yasbelle Kerkow, Haneen Mahmood Martin, Ema Shin and Siying Zhou.

A Soft Touch is on view until 13 August at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, NSW.

Image: installation view of Mehwish Iqbal in A Soft Touch. Courtesy of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.