Shot as one moving still, "INTO OUT OF and AWAY" is the picture of the undiluted fear that any immigrant from east has instilled in them from the very beginning of their journey out of their native lands.

The fear for children forsaking their cultural and religious identity, young girls running out on the choices that parents make for them, rebellion of the young ones, all congeal into one big lump that terrorizes the breath of every mother and boils the blood in the veins of fathers who hail from the lands of submission.

INTO OUT OF and AWAY is not a protest nor is it a statement. It is a question that I attempt to ask. It is a sensibility that I dare to provoke by filming the shape of the fear that is so real for so many.

The garment installation is a personal view of how individuals view their shalwar as garment and what it signifies to them in terms of social context.

Into, Out of and Away is the first public showing of a project that Asma Mahmood has been developing over the last three years. Its beginnings (Into) were seeded in her observations on the generational tension between the mothers and daughters in her own family re: codes of behavior and dress. The piece has expanded to include other artists underlining both the universality of cultural strictures and to reflect Mahmood's commitment to outreach and community projects (Out of). This more recent focus on the socio-political expressed through multimedia disciplines demonstrates that the content of her work can no longer be served by the modernist tradition of painting and her current practice encompasses audio and video installations and interventions. It is these sites of experimentation where Mahmood's research and imagination take flight (and Away).

Sarindar Dhaliwal, April 2006
Visual artist and art educator


">Shamshad Bibi (Pakistan)
Domastic help and maid
I am a simple person. People wear fashionable clothes but I always wear the same kind of dress and I would be embarrassed wearing anything else other than shalwar. Although it is just a garment but it is not something that makes people better or worse.
Being good or bad is just a choice of people. A shalwar is just a shalwar.

Shelly Bahl
(Artist and Educator)
I have a shalwar that was made from a sari that belongs to my mother-in-law.
It is a beautiful vintage red and gold brocade fabric. It is beautiful,
but I never wear it. Nor, can I bear to throw it away. I often think that
my body gets lost in a shalwar, and I never feel quite at ease.

I hope you would understand-
As much as I appreciate your project/concept and would like to support it, I am not comfortable in lending my shalwar for display. From the day you asked me for it, to date, I have been giving it a lot of thought and to some extent been stressed about it.
The disturbing aspect for me is to put my shalwar on display in an exhibition which would be attended by Men I know and once again be subjected to the pervert male scrutiny and touch that we left 'back home' (though that is the idea this project examines).
Strangely, if you would have asked me to lend a worn out pair of jeans, I would not have even thought twice about it before giving it to you.
Your project made me realize that how deeply embedded our cultural conditioning is, where throughout our lives we are constantly reminded to 'cover the shalwar'
Tazeen Qayyum ( visual artist and arts administrator)
Aparita Bhandari (Canada)
Journalist and writer
I was looking into stories of the Partition for a university paper when I came across a book of stories by Sadat Hasan Manto. The volume was slim, but it was one of the most powerful works I have read. One of the short stories was Kali Shalwar. It's about a young woman who is gang-raped by Hindus and Muslims during the violence of the Partition. I was left shaking after I finished the story. I could not imagine the pain of the girl. I give this shalwar in memory of the many girls over whose bodies men have written history.

Farida Khan (U.K)
Arts Administrator
"For me, the shalwar kameez is one of the most elegant costumes of our time.
Looking back as I was growing up in the UK, it highlighted difference, both generational and cultural, as well as an imposed identity, which alters perception, behavior, and notions of femininity. This is perhaps why I sent my most unassuming but much loved shalwar, which is also very practical in Manchester's cold and wet climate, yet neutral enough to blend in! "

Asma Arshad Mahmood (Canada)
Visual artist
My black shalwar is the tribute to Munto and his famous trial in 1950's. It is an acknowledgment of the times when discussion and debate could be carried out as acts of freedom of expression, and honesty of creative process was considered worthy of intellectual discourse without violence in thought and action

Nigar Nazar (Pakistan)
Cartoonist
My shalwar maintains my cultural and religious identity. It is respecting garment that meets all the requirements of modesty and values that are a part of Muslim society. However, I would display my shalwar in a movement as I feel that woman's work is never finished. She is always doing something or the other proving to be super women and shalwar does not seem to slow them down in any way.
'A Peaceful Resolution'

By Sadia Jamil
My green shalwar comes to offer a resolution and coming of terms to adapt to the sudden and often drastic changes faced by immigrants. The new lifestyles, cultural and moral practices of the western world come as a shock to the new immigrants. The color green signifies the arrival of spring and renewal of life. It is an offering of peace and celebration to welcome and embrace 'change' in a positive way.