Sourcecode

This October, the Sky Gallery is featuring Sourcecode by Nasreen Khan. 

Khan's art is a deeply personal and provocative exploration of identity, faith, and history. Her multicultural background, spanning West Africa and Indonesia, and a rich tapestry of Filipino-Chinese Afghan-Russian heritage shapes her artistic lens. Her work delves into the complexities of gender and faith, mainly through the lens of colonization's erasure of South Asian women's voices in art and theology. By asking what these women could have been and by reconstructing them through her art, Nasreen creates a space for spiritual and aesthetic practices to merge. Using wood as her primary medium—burning, carving, and painting it—her pieces reflect the rich traditions of Indonesian woodwork while integrating the experience of being an immigrant artist in Indiana.

Nasreen's newest project, @her_sourcecode, embraces both ancient traditions and cutting-edge technology. Inspired by the Pashtun landay poetry form, she blends these historic expressions with AI-generated visuals to explore themes of gender, war, and love. This digital narrative allows viewers to engage in world-building, creating a multifaceted exploration of identity, spirituality, and the unseen forces that shape our lives. Khan's work can be unsettling, not only for its vivid depictions of skin but also for the raw emotion she channels—anger at colonization, racism, and misogyny. Raised amidst both Christian and Animist teachings, her perspective weaves together spiritual practices often dismissed by Western logic, creating a body of work that embodies the complexity of her heritage and asks viewers to engage with deeper spiritual truths. Through art, Khan invites us to contemplate the space "behind the navel of the world," where history, spirituality, and identity intersect.

The show can be viewed anytime in the Sky Gallery through the month of October: Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. The works can also be viewed and purchased on our online gallery through November.