Pakistani Visual Artist Mahwish Chishty to Design Drone Art for Company of Fools Production of GROUNDED

This fall, Company of Fools (COF) will present Grounded, the gripping drama by award-winning playwright George Brant. The play will run Sept. 28-Oct. 13 at the Liberty Theatre in Hailey. Hailed by The New York Times as "A scorching, sharp-eyed, timely script ... (that) lets no one off easy," this heartbreaking, beautiful, and necessary story is one of courage, motherhood and modern warfare. COF's production of Grounded is part of the larger BIG IDEA project, Rayguns, Robots, Drones: Technology's Peril and Promise, that will be presented Jan. 13-March 25, 2017 by the Sun Valley Center for the Arts.

A central scenic element of COF's production will be a new piece by Pakistani visual artist Mahwish Chishty. Ms. Chishty has designed a large Reaper drone that will hang over the playing space. "I am delighted to be collaborating with Company of Fools' production team to design this scenic element for such a timely play as Grounded," said Ms. Chishty. "Bringing George Brant's vision to life, I have taken inspiration from the script to generate this symbolic rendering. Adding to this drama, I am also improvising by taking inspiration from Pakistani truck art genre to utilize the patina of the drone as canvas. My hope is that this vibrant, hovering Reaper drone above the stage and the audience will add to the drama and enhance the complexities of the drone war presented in the play."

Initially trained as a miniature painter at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, Chishty has aggressively combined new media and conceptual work with her traditional practice. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally at venues including the University of Technology (UTS Gallery) Sydney, Australia; Boghossian Foundation - Villa Empain, Brussels, Belgium; Utah Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MOCADA), Brooklyn, New York; University of Michigan - Ann Arbor; and Gandhara Art Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan, among others. By camouflaging modern war machines with folk imagery, Ms. Chishty sheds light on the complexity of acculturation, politics and power. (http://www.mahachishty.com/)

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