Courtesy of Sara Shakeel and Now Gallery.
Sara Shakeel’s work is intrinsically linked to Instagram. Not technically comprising memes but familiar with the cultural language, the Pakistani artist’s crystal-coated world occupies a digital space unique to the millennial landscape, revisiting Tumblr tropes and dipping them in photoshopped-diamonds for the grid. She’s been labelled the ‘Original Crystal Artist’ by Forbes and has amassed over 700K followers on the aforementioned app. Her massive popularity owes to the nature of her imagery: pictures of iconic landmarks, everyday objects like water bottles and sneakers, and well known figures — Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Audrey Hepburn — revised in glitter, sometimes with the addition of flowers or rainbows, that are always relatable in their escapism.
But tapped by south London’s Now Gallery for its Young Artist programme this spring, the ex-dentist has abandoned the collages for which she’s garnered innumerable ‘likes’, superstar fans and big name collaborators (Pharrell follows; Emirates is a client), translating her dazzling aesthetic into an IRL piece titled The Great Supper. It’s no great leap to say that the new work, a sculpture that elevates an everyday dining scenario into a sparkling mise en scène, will be comfortably placed on social media. It demands, frankly, to be the hero of an Instagram story, and deserves as many views as your follower count can deliver; at its core though, The Great Supper is concerned with something greater than a tap of a screen.
The Great Supper. Courtesy of Sara Shakeel and Now Gallery.
Consisting of a dining table adorned with candles and set with six places, accompanied by the corresponding chair count and a meal of burgers, fries and more, everything in The Great Supper is completely drenched in crystals. “I wanted the elements to merge,” Shakeel tells SLEEK, about her choice to reject different colours – the emphasis instead is underneath the glitz, highlighting mealtimes and their subsequent decline (a nod, ironically, to phones and the anti-social attitude they facilitate).
“Kaia, the curator, messaged me and was like ‘Sara, I really like your work but I’m a little confused, I have no idea what you do. I know that you make beautiful pictures, but if you have any ideas in mind just let us know’,” recounts Shakeel, who is in town from her native Pakistan for a month, about how the exhibition came about. Sometime prior, she’d played around with an egg and real crystals, deciding then that if ever she were approached to work on a physical art project, this would be the direction.
Cast in the illuminating glow of a floodlight, the exhibit’s design was inspired by a visit to the Swarovski head office in which crystal pieces are preserved in darkness. Yet, by presenting a feast untouched and chairs that won’t be sat on, The Great Supper is simultaneously suggestive of Miss Havisham’s elaborate banquet: left cold and missing guests. Here, the lack of any company demonstrates the move away from family mealtimes, inviting a conversation about what is there, what isn’t and what was.
“I love food, it’s my happy place, but the work is more about the dining table. It’s a character, a story,” Shakeel clarifies of the work’s more sombre observations. “When I was young dinner table get-togethers were a huge part of my life. Now, I’m realising that that’s fading, everyone’s too busy with work, everyone has their own priorities; parents get old, you stay in your room. This whole tradition is fading away, and I am holding onto that because it’s one of the most beautiful memories in my life.”
Courtesy of Sara Shakeel and Now Gallery.
As with social media more generally, Instagram’s role in this is complex. It has a part to play in diminishing the significance of the family dinner as everyone plays with their phones nowadays, but it is also the source of Shakeel’s success. “I love it, I’m very grateful,” the artist says of her relationship with the app. “I never wanted to be famous, I’m just going with the flow, but it gave me a platform where I could connect with a lot of great artists, meet new people, travel the world. It’s like texting but on a massive scale – everyone’s got my number at the end of the day, so if they want they can message me and we can connect.” In contrast to this inclusive digital space, The Great Supper is best viewed by just a small group at a time.
Like architecture and celebrity, food is a constant thread running throughout Shakeel’s feed: the inspiration behind it, and her broader body of work, arriving from any and all places. “It is just me reimagining how I would want the world to look, maybe something that I’ve lived or want to live,” she says. “I’m a mad scientist and I love everything. I live in my own bubble of imagination, quite like Alice in Wonderland to be very honest.”
Echoing references as diverse as Dickens, Damien Hirst’s crystal skull, For the Love of God (2007), early ‘00s bedazzled flip phones and diamante chain belts, The Great Supper is a sum of many parts. Ultimately, Shakeel’s desire is for the work to spark a little joy. “I just hope people have a smile on their face when they leave the gallery,” she muses, her speech mirroring the same positive sentiments of the captions that live digitally. “I am a very smiley person, but that’s what I want to achieve from my work too – people smiling.”
The Great Supper runs through to 23 June at Now Gallery, London.