Haya Zaidi: Celebration of Artists

The News International, October 25, 2022

Around the world, artists are working hard in creating their artistic work. Artists are the ones who add beauty to the world we live in. They work with many different mediums. Artists include painters, photographers, sculptors, literacy, musicians, dancers, writers, actors, digital artists, and more. Over the years, IAD (International Artist Day) has been grown steadily in popularity globally. More precisely, IAD has taken on a life of its own. Artists and their supporters from everywhere celebrate IAD. They promote festivals and events to increase the perceptibility of the art and artists in a wide variety of genres. It may include painting to literature, music, the digital arts, and everything in between with the help of local and corporate sponsors. As art provides you with a medium of speech, let us also see the work of those who study, research and criticise artists to showcase their art of words. Today we highlight artist Haya Zaidi. 

 

Haya Zaidi is a full-time, self-employed artist, based in Karachi, Pakistan. Zaidi's work is an amalgamation of mix-media, collage, miniature painting and digital art.

Her work centres on personal experiences, while navigating the world within the vessel of a brown female body and explores subjects around race, gender, identity and sexuality within the sub-continental cultural climate. "I think artists are important in all cultures and societies. They add beauty/aesthetics to the world around us and beauty is one of the few attributes which make life on this planet worthwhile. Whether musicians, actors, visual artists, chefs or dancers, I think all kinds of artists strive to do the same thing - to offer an escape to their audience," she enthuses.

"I don't really celebrate international artists' day but it would've been nice if coffee shops or restaurants were to give our local artists some kind of a discount or a deal to celebrate them! Just an idea. Or maybe discounted deals on art and stationery stores at least, the cost of art supplies is insanely high! Maybe if things like this existed I'd feel celebrated as an artist (haha), practically speaking," she shares candidly. "I think art, whether in one form or another, has always been present ever since life flourished on this planet. I can't speak for the 'future' of art per se because I think art is timeless. When we talk about the future we predict the nature of something based on how it's operating in the present, but art has always been there - it's eternal," she asserts.