Building Desires

Mahtab Hussain
Mac Birmingham, 2012

I worked with Mahtab Hussain to write a funding application for his Building Desires project that asked the question "What does it mean to be a British Pakistani male today?"

Occupying the Arena Gallery at Midlands Arts Centre he exhibited images of a young boy bound by cultural and religious constraints, a teenager who begins to form a new identity on the streets away from the security of family, and a contemporary Pakistani male who has adopted desirable mainstream ideals of what it mean to be man living in the UK.

As part of the exhibition he engaged with the local community by creating an interactive working wall where the audience answered his key question about identity.

I supported him throughout the project and advised on the curation of the final exhibition.