A real feast for the eyes (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

A real feast for the eyes

8:35am Thursday 7th May 2009 in

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It’s not unusual to find works of art displayed in places other than galleries and museums.

The latest Bradford business to offer its walls to art- works is Amjad Bashir’s popular cosmopolitan restaurant Zouk, on Leeds Road. His sister Uzma Bashir is the manager.

She says: “We want to showcase the work of artists from Bradford and from Yorkshire here and in our new restaurant in Chester Street, Manchester.

“There are limited places where they can show their stuff and we have a ready audience here. Our restaurants are open to people who don’t necessarily go to museums.

“It’s not just for the artists’ benefit, but for Bradfordians and Yorkshire people who come here from all over.”

The first artist to get the Zouk treatment is Bradford mother-of-four (and grandmother) Sabiha Hussain, who lives in Heaton with her twin sons. She also has a 16-year-old daughter and a married daughter with a child.

Her paintings are elaborate, decorative designs worked up from a range of materials, natural and man-made – flowers, pine cones, foliage, even putty. From the paintings, she and her brother Sajid produce cards for sale.

“I have got around 38 paintings now. I just started doing the cards. Shops in Leeds, Haworth and Saltaire have taken them, either for cash or sale or return,” she says.

Sabiha was born in Uganda. Her family came to Britain in 1967, and she has lived in Bradford for 25 years.

Up until she took voluntary redundancy last year, she worked for seven years as a teaching assistant at Horton Park School on the Canterbury Estate.

“It was the headteacher, Sarah Dawson, who developed me. She knew I had an artistic background. I became an art specialist assistant and worked closely with the head teacher and with artists who came into the school,” she adds.

While many produce art purely for pleasure, trying to make a going concern out of it commercially is far from easy. Sabiha says: “It’s been very therapeutic and kept me going. This has evolved. My paintings took shape from things in my head. It was not a business venture; it was me wanting to do something artistic.”

However, putting art works up for sale is one way of testing whether your ideas and skills strike a chord with the general public.

Sabiha’s designs, however, are not tested for the market before she commits them to canvas. They stem from her childhood in Uganda.

She says: “In Africa I was surrounded by my mother’s and grandmother’s traditional clothing and embroidery, which were influenced by my great grandmother’s Pakistani heritage.

“I was spellbound by mother’s dowry, especially a delicate chiffon ‘dappata’ embroidered with a silver border and silver appliquéd circle shapes.

“I was fascinated by henna colour and patterns appearing like magic. I have always appreciated the sacred shape, beauty and artistic flow of Islamic calligraphy.

“When we came to the North of England, my father worked in the mills producing yarn for carpets. My mother took great pride in designing, embroidering and hand-stitching our clothes.

“In my work I have combined these influences with my experience of the beauty, colour and texture of natural and found objects through an organic process, resulting in collage embroidery.”

There are almost as many colours in Sabiha’s work as there are nationalities who work at Zouk – at least 12, including a French pastry chef and a Slovakian cleaner. Uzma Bashir says it was one of the rare examples of a Bradford Asian family business employing a multi-racial workforce.

“Uzma’s brother, Amjad, is my mentor, giving me space for my work. They are going to support other emerging artists. I am the first,” Sabiha adds.

• Sabiha’s art show at Zouk in Leeds Road is on Saturday, May 9, from 1pm to 4pm. She can be contacted for more information on 07971 106025.