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Celia Shaheen

Graduate Student, MFA Program

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Celia Shaheen

Biography

Curriculum Vitae
  • BFA, Studio Art, University of Texas at Austin
  • BA, Art History, University of Texas at Austin

My studio practice oscillates at the intersection of archiving and making, working across the spectrums of fibers, printmaking, papermaking, and metalsmithing. I call upon the shared language of textiles and storytelling to investigate Lebanese culinary traditions, folklores of the animate and inanimate, and webs of lineage and longing. I’m interested in the physical and metaphorical links across these media: as surfaces for storytelling and communicating messages, as image-cum-object, as things portable and quotidian, as substrates, as records, and as objects of relative malleability and porousness. Much of my work is talismanic in nature, and I enjoy imbuing the objects I make with symbols of protection and prosperity, whether that be through pattern, color, or specific motifs pulled from historical textiles and jewelry.

Work

Tessellated casts of pulp pigmented with ultramarine and metallic copper mimic the pattern of a quilt, with etched and hydraulic press-formed charms arranged in reference to the summer constellation of lyra. Celia Shaheen: I sang outward from my face to blue spaces Graduate Celia Shaheen: I sang outward from my face to blue spaces
This blanket was made using the resist-dyeing technique of ikat, and was dyed using indigo, henna extract, pomegranate extract, and madder root. The pattern in the warp is drawn from one of my great aunt’s rugs, while the undulating twill in the weft is implies the rhythm and movement of waves. Celia Shaheen: Between mountain and sea Graduate Celia Shaheen: Between mountain and sea
The repeated image in this work is a photo collage made from scans of the backside of an embroidered seat chair cover that has been in my family for nearly 100 years. This cover is one of a set that was a wedding gift for my great-grandmother, handmade by her four sisters before she immigrated to the US from Lebanon. The handmade paper, a blend of cotton and flax, was dyed with pomegranate extract and textured to suggest the surface of a plaster or stucco wall. Celia Shaheen: Verso Graduate Celia Shaheen: Verso
A linoleum print of fragmented textiles in dark teal is set inside the portal-like cast of cotton paper pulp, pigmented in copper and ultramarine with splashes of bright teal and cherry red. The cast piece is impressed with the shape of a handwoven, circular basket mat. Threads accent the corners of the print in an unraveling border. Celia Shaheen: The stars were visible until noon Graduate Celia Shaheen: The stars were visible until noon