40 Years of the Future: Degrees of Duality
2025
Kashmir velvet, vinyl, mirror, emulsion, MDF, brass, polystyrene, spotlight

Site-specific installations commissioned by Castlefield Gallery.

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Degrees of Duality was commissioned as part of Castlefield Gallery's 40th anniversary programme and transformed the gallery's lower level into an immersive environment exploring identity, belonging and cultural exchange.

Drawing upon Shah's ongoing interest in liminal spaces, the installation brought together tessellated patterns, architectural forms and symbolic motifs alongside textiles and architectural fragments drawn from domestic interiors. Familiar elements associated with the home were displaced and reconfigured within a surreal environment, creating moments of recognition and estrangement.

References to European heraldic imagery appeared in dialogue with geometric forms and patterned structures associated with Pakistani architecture and design, establishing a visual language shaped by adaptation and exchange. Screens, textiles and repeated motifs functioned as thresholds, simultaneously dividing and connecting spaces, while suggesting the ways symbols and histories are continually inherited, transformed and reinterpreted over time.

Presented as both an artwork and a social space, Degrees of Duality hosted talks, workshops, screenings and community events throughout its exhibition, inviting audiences to gather, reflect and engage with the installation collectively. The project proposed a space in which convergences and contradictions could coexist, encouraging visitors to consider how identities and cultural narratives are shaped through processes of translation, negotiation and becoming.