Fleur + Charles Bresler Residency Program Archives

Madyha Legari

Bio: Madyha J. Leghari (b. 1991) is a visual artist, writer, and educator working between Lahore and Washington DC. Her practice often revolves around the instability of language and the body. In more recent works, she examines the tenuous and contradictory ethos of what is deemed “natural” in contemporary gestational and birthing practices She earned a BFA at the National College of Arts, Lahore (2013) and an MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (2018) through a Fulbright Scholarship. Madyha has been the recipient of the Nicholson Studio Residency; Bresler Residency at VisArts; Wherewithal Research Grant; Hamiltonian Artists Fellowship; Mansion Artist Residency; Delta Research Placement at the Flat Time House; Vasl Fiction Writing Mentorship; Siena Art Institute Artist Residency and the Murree Museum residency. Madyha has exhibited globally at prestigious venues including the Kreeger Museum, Pera Museum, Karachi Biennale, University of Colorado Boulder, Bennington College, Sea Foundation, The Institute for Experimental Arts, Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival, Images Festival, and others spanning the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Her work has found mention in the Washington Post, Artforum, and The News Pakistan, amongst others. Madyha has written on art for a number of publications including ArtNow Pakistan and the Dawn Newspaper. Additionally, she has taught at institutions including the National College of Arts, Lahore, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston, and the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. Artist Statement: In recent works, I am interested in the phenomenological experience of pregnancy, a condition in which the body becomes multiple, time folds in unfamiliar ways, and the boundary between self and other is breached. I also examine the tenuous and often contradictory ways we define what is “natural,” especially in relation to gestation and birth. It is weaponized through ideals of natural birth, compulsory breastfeeding, and metaphors that equate the maternal body with the planetary body. These comparisons imply that some bodies or births could ever be “unnatural.” At the same time, I question the scientific dogmas that pathologize, surveil, and alienate the pregnant body, subjecting it to scrutiny and touch marked by mistrust and detachment. To understand how this gaze developed, I look to historical anatomical diagrams, how they depict the pregnant body, how the eye travels inwards and through it, and the conditions under which this particular form of vision and scientific authority emerged. Materially, I work with casts of my own body and objects drawn from maternity care, medical simulation, and wellness cultures. A central material in recent pieces is pink rock salt, often marketed under the exoticized misnomer “Himalayan salt.” Mined primarily in Pakistan, these deposits are remnants of an ancient shallow sea that existed roughly 800 million years ago. Yet in contemporary wellness culture, this deep geological history is eclipsed by commercial fantasy. Language is another recurring element in my practice, often emerging as poetry.