Drained 2011

Recognised for her sculptures that appropriate household objects and the decorative crafts of her home city of Karachi, among Adeela Suleman’s current stock of icons are small birds, individually cut from steel and given their features in the repousse style cultivated by the city’s vesper-decorators. Strung into hanging curtains or splayed in sheets of metal from their tails as part of larger more elaborate arrangements, these dead little bodies remind us of the corpses that stack up in newspaper prints and hospital morgues in the artists’ troubled city – by the fact of their numbers appearing anonymous and intrinsically devalued.

In this piece made especially for the site of Manchester Cathedral, Suleman alludes not to a representation of the macabre body, but of a sublime thought: that matter, life and even faith, can slip away. A seductive vanitas, the work curves and glistens, capturing its viewers’ own reflections and leading their eyes into its centre.

Although Suleman has worked with drain covers in her practice before, in this piece the function of her object is re-described across the sculpture itself. The unnerving disappearance of water as it spins down a drain is replicated by this circular maze in which loss and disappearance is both abstracted and quietly articulated. In a place of tombs, memorials, funerals, weddings, and baptisms, earthly fears and transcendental comforts meet in this work. The work’s shape is reminiscent of the circular mazes that pattern the floors of some Christian churches – inviting the congregation to slowly follow their patterns to the middle while meditating upon the profound along the way.

While its invitation to ‘enter’ might be unsettling, the work’s functional ‘spikes’ – the screws that hold the piece together – repel its audience, gently suggesting that at least for now, the work’s invisible centre is not to be confronted.

“Recognised for her sculptures that appropriate household objects and the decorative crafts of her home city of Karachi, among Adeela Suleman’s current stock of icons are small birds, individually cut from steel and given their features in the repousse style cultivated by the city’s vesper-decorators. Strung into hanging curtains or splayed in sheets of metal from their tails as part of larger more elaborate arrangements, these dead little bodies remind us of the corpses that stack up in newspaper prints and hospital morgues in the artists’ troubled city – by the fact of their numbers appearing anonymous and intrinsically devalued.

“In this piece made especially for the site of the Cathedral, Suleman alludes not to a representation of the macabre body, but of a sublime thought: that matter, life and even faith, can slip away. A seductive vanitas, the work curves and glistens, capturing its viewers’ own reflections and leading their eyes into its centre.

“Although Suleman has worked with drain covers in her practice before, in this piece the function of her object is re-described across the sculpture itself. The unnerving disappearance of water as it spins down a drain is replicated by this circular maze in which loss and disappearance is both abstracted and quietly articulated. In a place of tombs, memorials, funerals, weddings, and baptisms, earthly fears and transcendental comforts meet in this work. The work’s shape is reminiscent of the circular mazes that pattern the floors of some Christian churches – inviting the congregation to slowly follow their patterns to the middle while meditating upon the profound along the way.

“While its invitation to ‘enter’ might be unsettling, the work’s functional ‘spikes’ – the screws that hold the piece together – repel its audience, gently suggesting that at least for now, the work’s invisible centre is not to be confronted.”
Gemma Sharpe

A Shisha co-commission in partnership with the Aicon Gallery, London.

Exchange Station Approach, Victoria Street, Manchester M3 1SX
Tel: +44 (0)161 833 2220
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Opening times
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Saturday: 8am–5pm
Sunday: 8.30am–7.30pm

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