Sarah Khan

Sarah Khan is an artist and writer whose practice spans moving image, text, sound and performance. Drawing on her lived experience, theory and collective memory, she explores the ways in which displacement and liminality are projected upon the ‘othered’ body. She is interested in the constant shift and disruption of space that exists between the periphery and centre and how this is navigated in environments that uphold homogeneity. In both her daily life and practice, she is committed to undoing Western constructs of binary logic and relearning through a decolonial praxis

Sarah is a co-founder of the collective Baesianz which centres artists of Asian heritage from all around the world through publishing, radio shows, artist talks and film screenings.

As part of her MA, she created the art book When You Blossom I Bloom ꒱࿐♡ ˚.*ೃ

I am interested in the far reaching corners; undoing exclusion and dismissal. I am curious about the ways in which embodiment is achieved through text, video and sound, often producing an over-spilling of actualisation. I am concerned with centring narratives and identities that exist beyond the mainstream, especially those considered marginalised amongst white Western demographics. I am committed to undoing colonial sentiments, heteropatriarchal rule and selective/reductive education.

How do we blossom under the conditions we currently find ourselves in? Virtually, we conjure space in the digital realms, relying on imagination and archival evidence as sustaining forces to deliver a new world. We offer each other our own creations, oral histories and knowledge as a balm for new wounds. We come together, a unifying blossom against a crisis to move towards a common cause.

This collection of 17 essays, artworks and interviews in the art book When You Blossom I Bloom explore the multiple ways in which marginalised identities are rendered visible in contemporary culture through self and collective exploration. Within, BPOC cultural practitioners from underrepresented genders demonstrate how the personal becomes communal. These works explore the ways in which collectivity is a radical site for healing and reclamation; how the act of witnessing a blossoming can initiate another’s bloom. As a site, it demonstrates the vital necessity of spaces created for those whose identities might be compromised in environments that uphold homogeneity.

Contributors include Muslim Sisterhood, Tanoa Sasraku, Sola Olulode, Divya Sharma, Healing Justice London, Katayoun Jalilipour, Kimberley Cookey-Gam, Lilian Nejatpour, Rhea Dillon, Mia Georgis, Michelle Williams Gamaker, Nuka Nayu, Gazelle Mba, Misery Party, Raheela Suleman, Sohaila Baluch and Jazz Grant.

When You Blossom I Bloom is due for release in Summer 2021.

In Collaboration with:

Ananya Mohan

Book Design

Inside Out, film still, 2020

Inside Out is a short film combining footage of everyday British-Pakistani culture with scenes filmed in London and archival material. Along with a poetic monologue performed against an original score by musician Nadia Tehran, the film reflects on the complexity and alienation of navigating a cross-cultural existence in a homogeneous Western society — the cycle of disconnect with environment and homecoming to self through honest embodiment.

A film by Sarah Khan

Editor - Claire Arnold

Sound Design - Nadia Tehran

Colour grading - Umi Ishihara

Costume stylist - Rosa Safiah O’connell

Clothing by WED

Monologue recorded at Teeth Studios

Producer - Chisenhale Gallery

Commissioned by the ICA and BBC Arts as part of New Creatives 2020