Qasim Riza Shaheen: Autoportraits in love-like conditions

Manchester-based artist and writer Qasim Riza Shaheen presents a major new exhibition, Autoportraits in love-like conditions. This is a show staged in two parts in partnership with mac birmingham, where a second, related body of work will be exhibited under the title The last known pose.

Autoportraits in love-like conditions includes performance, film, photography, audio recordings, drawings and mixed media, and features new commissions produced by Shaheen over a 12-month period spent in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. It will focus on silent tales of love and the connections between people, while exploring simulated moments of intimacy with strangers through imagery and role-play.

Autoportraits in love-like conditions researches the fragile architecture of the space between people, metaphysical communication and desire, attraction and reaction, the real and the imagined. By reproducing connections and moments from his own life, Shaheen reveals the universal nature of human experience. In his work we see reflections of ourselves and others whom we hold close, and the intimate experiences that define our lives.