Call Me Fertile
2019
Lahore Biennale 2019

Amin performed Call Me Fertile at O Art Space for a collateral event of the second Lahore Biennale, curated by Hoor Al Qasimi. For this work, he created a pregnant stomach out of copper to fit his body. He wanted it to feel like a natural extension of himself so that he inhabited it, and it him. On the opening of the group show, Amin, dressed in a somber business suit and polished dress shoes, tied the custom-made belly to his waist and moved throughout the milling crowd, making casual conversation. Some ignored his attire, others raised an eyebrow to it, while yet others fell into a familiar social pattern of congratulating him on his good fortune. The stomach was a recreation of one that Vinnie Ahmed had worn on the catwalk for Sola Singhar in 2001. (Amin had long ago remade the original work into a free-standing sculpture called Empty Nest.) Eggs, and the fertility they represent, have been a recurring motif for the artist. He has returned to the form again and again over the years in his sculpture, reimagining it in myriad ways. Through the transformative act of wearing the pregnant stomach, Amin appropriated the egg, furthering his investigation of gender through performance. To document the work, Amin asked Karachi-based photographer Omer Ehtisham to create formal portraits of him such as those routinely taken in studio settings to mark important life events