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2024 post: Throughout 2024, we're looking back at the 100 year history of art at the Mulvane. Ambreen Butt’s lithograph diptych “Say My Name” uses the stylization of Indian and Persian miniature painting to bring attention to American violence. The left panel references victims of US drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan, while the right panel names victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Her work invites you to reflect on the individuals who have been harmed by armed violence.Label
"The work is titled after the series, 'Say my Name' which deals with the casualties of US drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan during the post 9/11 war on Terror. In this diptych, on the left panel, I chose multiple names and ages of the victims in Urdu/Arabic script, deconstructed and drawn on layers of lithographic plates, the names appear as random letters from Arabic/Urdu language. Red bellied or rather blood sucking mosquitoes are swarming over the bed of broken names. Opposite, on the right are the names/ages of the victims of Mass shooting in the US. Deconstructed and drawn in a stylized old English format, the names are covered with hailed and glorified image of repeatedly drawn guns in a circular motion. Hunting scenes from 'the great hunt', a 16th century Mughal miniature painting of Emperor Akbar's hunt somewhere near today's Afghanistan, are juxtaposed on both panels. They both touch upon two different kinds of political violence resulting in the death of the most vulnerable of the society, the innocent children, one in the name of 'war on terror' and the other 'right to bear arms'. For the right panel, I chose the names of the victims of Sandy Hook shooting, because my daughter was of the similar age as those of the victims and that hit really close to heart."