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Saturday Night, 20 x 24 in, Archival pigment print, Hand woven fabric, Carved wooden frame, From A Week series

Songs of the East (Detail), Alhamra Art Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan – 2019

New Land, Future of History: A Group Exhibition of Art and Technology, Boston Cyberarts, Boston, MA

Reading Between the Lines, Many Studios, Glasgow, Scotland (Detail)

Reading Between the Lines, Many Studios, Glasgow, Scotland (Detail)

Reading Between the Lines, Many Studios, Glasgow, Scotland (Detail)

Reading Between the Lines, Many Studios, Glasgow, Scotland (Detail)

Paivasta/Rooted, Bagh-e-Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan (Detail)

Paivasta/Rooted, Bagh-e-Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan (Detail)

Paivasta/Rooted, Bagh-e-Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan (Detail)

Camouflage 1, (a) and (b), Installation View, Dutch Ambassador's Residence, Islamabad, Pakistan

︎

I am an American artist and educator living in Daytona Beach, Florida USA.

Working in photography, video, and installation, I use the camera to document real and constructed versions of the everyday on the street and in the studio to explore truth and representation, muslim cultural identity, and the collective memory of the eastern world.

Drawing on similar themes, I also collaborate with my wife Unum Babar on site-specific projects related to the city, nature, and urban life.

In the classroom, I establish hybrid modes of learning that help students form independent connections between theory and practice, the self and the Other, past and present identities, and digital and analog processes.

Stimulating these various entry points of my practice are questions that relate to the ideological discord between eastern and western culture, the friction between local and global narratives, and the ironies and contradictions that manifest in everyday life.

Matt Kushan, Unum Babar, and Laaléh Rose Kushan

Selected Projects

Teaching Practice

Drawing from my studio practice, I have developed and taught a range of courses involving photography in the expanded field, video, installation, creative coding, and design to a range of individuals working in art, design, and technology. The theoretical backbone of these courses are driven by an interest in issues surrounding post-internet culture, colonialism and orientalism, race, gender, and identity, language and aesthetics, and private and public life.

Latifa Attai, Fine Art Major Studio V, 4th Year, Archival Inkjet Print and Thread, 2017

Latifa Attai, Fine Art Major Studio V, 4th Year, Archival Inkjet Print and Thread, 2017

Waleed Zaffar, Fine Art Major Studio IV, 4th Year, Archival Inkjet Print, 2016

Waleed Zaffar, Fine Art Major Studio IV, 4th Year, Archival Inkjet Print, 2016

Sana Ullah, Photography Major Studio IV, 4th Year, Archival Inkjet Print, 2017 (Installation View)

Sana Ullah, Photography Major Studio IV, 4th Year, Archival Inkjet Print, 2017 (Installation View)

Anas Asmat and Raekhta Ahmar, Tools and Techniques of Graphic Communication II, 1st Year, Laminated Photographs Suspended in Ice, 2016

Baqer Ahmedi, Photography I, 2nd Year, Archival Inkjet Print, 2019

Baqer Ahmedi, Photography I, 2nd Year, Archival Inkjet Print, 2019

Farwa Cheema, Tools and Techniques of Graphic Communication I, 1st Year, Digital Print Book, 2016

BorderLine

Art Direction for GENERATION (Bari Eid Campaign)

Art Direction for GENERATION (Bari Eid Campaign)

Art Direction for GENERATION (Winter Campaign)

BorderLine is an independent creative collaborative practice, consultancy and digital shop focusing on the production of images, films and objects inspired by popular culture and the everyday. This interdisciplinary commercial-centric practice attempts to confront issues surrounding mainstream aesthetics and representation in art, fashion, and photography by tactfully incorporating unusual approaches to conceptualizing and creating new stories and ideas.