Huma Bhabha
Livin’ Things
9 June—29 October 2023
Museum M, Leuven, Belgium
We are delighted to announce the upcoming exhibition of Huma Bhabha at Museum M in Leuven, in collaboration with MO.CO. Montpellier Contemporain. Using salvaged objects such as fragments of furniture and industrial polystyrene boxes, and a wide range of media including clay, wood, cork, paper, plastic, rubber and metal, Bhabha creates sculptures that hover between the recognisably human and the otherworldly. Important to her practice, Bhabha also makes drawings on photographs and on paper, working with collage. Employing a distinctly personal visual language, she explores the human figure—an enduring presence in the art of all cultures and periods.
Bhabha draws on a wide range of references such as Ancient Greek, early African, Egyptian and Indian sculpture, modernism and expressionism. But her work is equally steeped in contemporary inspirations such as science fiction and horror films, current events and memories of her birthplace Karachi. Bhabha questions man’s position in the world. She interweaves her works with allusions to environmental collapse, disasters of war, mass extinction and subsequent regeneration and transformation.
M shows a selection from her oeuvre, including her well-known androgynous totem figures and monumental drawings. The works are presented in a custom-made installation by M.