Amina Begum

Mixed media on plywood with accompanying video, 2026 Samina Bukhari

Multimedia artist Samina Bukhari presents a layered installation exploring time, memory, womanhood, and intergenerational connection. The work pays homage to her late grandmother—born Amina, but professionally known as Yasmeen—who became the family breadwinner post-Partition through a career in early Pakistani cinema (Lollywood).

The central painting brings together three generations, depicting Yasmeen in her youth alongside visual reflections of the tender bond she shared with Samina’s daughter, her great-granddaughter. The centre piece incorporates archival papers gathered during Samina’s final visit to Lahore, alongside fragments of her grandmother’s own writing, embedding personal history directly onto the surface.

Accompanying the physical artwork and displayed artefacts, is a video piece interweaving Yasmeen’s public screen presence in a 1953 film role with intimate home footage capturing the transient, public and private roles she played.

Reflecting on the passage of time and the many identities women navigate—from breadwinner and mother to grandmother and great-grandmother—the piece traces a familial connection sustained across diaspora and displacement. Left intentionally unfinished, the evolving installation serves as a site of remembrance, gratitude, and grief.

This piece is a work in progress