Since 2015, Nosheen Iqbal has developed a distinctive practice rooted in material tension, cultural memory, and the quiet strength of repetition. Working primarily with hand embroidery on wood, her work merges traditionally domestic textile techniques with architectural surfaces to explore themes of identity, inheritance, and self-preservation.
Drawing from the visual language of her Pakistani heritage, her work incorporates geometric patterning, botanical arabesques, and motifs inspired by phulkari and baagh textiles. Yet these references are not reproduced—they are reimagined. Through saturated threadwork and labor-intensive layering, she constructs contemporary compositions that speak to diasporic hybridity, duality, and the complexity of cultural continuity.
At the heart of her practice is the juxtaposition of softness and resistance. Embroidering directly into wood—an unforgiving, rigid surface—requires immense physical and mental endurance. Each stitch becomes a deliberate mark of presence, pushing thread through the grain as a metaphor for carving space within structures not made to accommodate it. The tension between fragility and force becomes not only a visual element, but a conceptual framework: one that mirrors the lived experiences of those navigating displacement, multiplicity, and the pressure to assimilate.
Her work challenges traditional boundaries between craft and contemporary art, reclaiming embroidery as both an aesthetic and political tool. Often associated with ornament or the domestic sphere, embroidery in her hands becomes a method of drawing, a means of assertion. Thread is not embellishment—it is language. Her compositions often include semi-precious beadwork and complex layering that build tactile, dimensional surfaces, recalling devotional objects or heirlooms passed between generations.
Conceptually, Nosheen Iqbals’s work is grounded in ritual, memory, and care. Repetition—of stitch, of pattern, of color—is not mere decoration but an act of resilience. Each piece serves as both a record of labor and a meditation on identity. In navigating what is inherited and what is self-determined, her practice reflects the fluidity of diasporic experience: rooted, yet always evolving.
Recent works expand her embroidered surfaces into sculptural and architectural formats, including laser-cut overlays and spatial installations. These extensions continue her exploration of dimensionality, inviting viewers to engage with pattern and material across planes and perspectives. Whether on a gallery wall or integrated into built environments, her work offers immersive, contemplative spaces that ask us to slow down, look closely, and consider the quiet power embedded in labor and detail.
Through her hybrid material approach and deeply intentional practice, Nosheen Iqbal creates a language of form and fiber that speaks to survival, complexity, and belonging. Her work is not only made to be seen—but to be felt, traced, and remembered.
@noshii
