Sabina Haque: The New Abnormal 2.0

Multidisciplinary artist Sabina Haque was raised in Karachi, Pakistan. In this installation, The New Abnormal 2.0, Haque examines the global environmental emergency by contrasting the 2022 Pakistan floods affecting her family’s home with the Pacific Northwest wildfires near her current home.

The catastrophic Pakistan floods serve as both imagery and a call for concern, linking extreme weather to human-caused global warming. In Fire & Floods, a line of women in kurtas struggle through rushing floodwaters while a boy clings to a rope, set against a backdrop of burnt trees from the Pacific Northwest. The work highlights global-local connections, using weaving as a metaphor for human environment relationships. Here, bars of pink, blue, and gray paint disrupt the photos, symbolizing this intricate connection.

Like stained-glass windows, Haque’s five illuminated light boxes cast a soft glow in her solo show, which also features 11 spotlit oil paintings and wall and floor video projections in a dimly lit, meditative space. On the floor, a white chalk animation loops over a circle of black charcoal, where a rangoli infinity symbol continuously remakes itself.

The light box Climate Infinity Cycle displays crimson-red photos of wildfire-scorched Pacific Palisades, overlaid with a diamond-shaped collage of flood images forming another infinity symbol. The eight pointed symbol, traditionally placed with chalk powder outside South Asian homes in spring to symbolize renewal, reflects Haque’s vision of rebirth beyond destruction.

Opening reception & First Thursday April 3, 5–8pm
Artist talk April 13, 11am
waterstonegallery.com