Yasmeen Fathima Thantrey (she/her/they) is an artist living and working in London. Currently studying MA Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Art, her practice explores diaspora, identity, and barriers she has encountered growing up in the UK. Feminist issues such as body hair and diet culture are also challenged through the eyes of a brown girl. Their work is interdisciplinary, often using mediums that feel appropriate to the topics she is exploring. This ranges from photography, text, performance and film, to installations and soft sculptures.
"Often I feel huge tension between the intersections of my identity, rarely finding spaces that can nurture me as a whole. I try to explore these tensions within my practice, aiming to find the sweet spot that can give voice my experiences with disability, class, gender/queerness, and race as a Pakistani Punjabi woman. Communities and socially engaged practices play a big role in creating works that can speak to a shared experience."
Thantrey’s work has a strong collaborative element, as the issues she takes on are socio-political, and therefore, community is extremely significant for the work she produces. This makes her work fall somewhere within the art activism and performance intersection, as audience response and gaze is crucial to the narrative. She aims to play and dismantle power structures through humorous loaded work, that purposefully interrupts a white cube and institutional environment.
Their work thrives within social media spaces, to generate discourse and open safe spaces for discussion. Often looking back to early 2010's toxic internet culture as a catalyst for internal biases, reclaiming social media in this way acts as a healing process to be shared with others in the generation.
Exhibitions
2022
Pure Class, RCA Working Class Collective, August
In The Mirror, Shape Arts, June
Hearts On Our Sleeves, Riot Soup & Toynbee Hall, March
Censor Me, I Dare You, Holly Inks, March
WiP 2022, Royal College of Art, January
2021
Every Woman Biennial, Copeland Gallery, June
2020
Feminist Mythologies, The Feminist Library, December
Protest and Protect, Feminist Art Museum, December
Sharing Is Caring, Instagram, October
Sad Grads, Instagram, July
The Future Is Loading, Shape Arts, July
UAL Graduate Showcase, July
Hot Local Artists, hArts Lane, London, February
class of :, Copeland Gallery, London, February
2019
Waterloo Sunset, Feminist Library, London, December
The Unseen and the Unspoken, hArts Lane, London, July
Asian Women's Festival, New Bingly Hall, London, April
SHELF Collective, Camberwell College of Arts, London, March
Merge, Southwark Park Gallery, London, January
2018
Desire Lines, Silver Building, London, November
#DidThat, Arts SU, AMP Studios, London, September
Traces, Old Parcel Office, North Yorkshire, August
Publications
Becoming, Femme Fatale Issue 4,
The Future Is Loading, Shape Arts, 2020
We Need to Talk About Fa(s)t Fashion, interview with Rachelle Cox, 5.18 Mag, 2019
'Holding My Power’, Because I’m Tacky, 2018
‘Because I am Brown’, Decolonising The Arts Zine, 2018
‘Body Hair’, That's What She Said, 2017
“Did I Just Get In Because I Am Brown?”, That's What She Said, 2017
‘It Has Taken Me Twenty Years To Accept That I Am Asian’, That's What She Said, 2017
Education
Contemporary Art Practice: Public Sphere, Royal College of Art, 2021-Current
Fine Art Sculpture, Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, 2017-2020
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Central College Nottingham, 2015-2016
Awards
Leverhulme Scholarship, RCA, 2021-2023
Cedric Morris Foundation Travel Award, UAL, 2020
This example portfolio website includes work from the following photographers:
Avi Richards, Chris Barbalis, Marjan Blan, Raban Haajik