The ‘Beghairat’ of Misha Japanwala: ‘As a Pakistani Woman, Shamelessness Really Comes At You From All Angles’

Misha Japanwala, a visual artist and fashion designer of Pakistani origin, will certainly raise eyebrows when her debut solo exhibition, entitled Beghairati Ki Nishaani: Traces of Shamelessness, opens at Hannah Traore Gallery in New York City this week and runs through July 30. Her work, as described by the gallery, “is rooted in the rejection and deconstruction of external shame attached to one’s body, and the discussion of themes such as bodily autonomy, gender-based violence, moral policing, sexuality, and censorship.”

Describing her art, Japanwala says, it “is as much a reckoning with and intentional rejection of external control as it is a celebration. I always knew I wanted to be an artist/fashion designer but growing up, I could never have imagined it would be in the way I am now. I spent my childhood filling sketchbooks with dresses and gowns and here I am today making casts of nipples and vulvas! A journey!”

Japanwala’s work has been “photographed for and written about in various international publications including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Vice and Document Journal. Misha has created pieces for Cardi B, Gigi Hadid, Lil Nas X, and Joy Crookes, and was recently an honoree on the Forbes Under 30 list,” says the gallery introduction.

London-born and Karachi-raised Japanwala will exhibit her core collection, which includes, a “collection of breastplates, a composite resin creates a perfectly hollow shell providing the illusion of a second skin,” as The Guardian describes. They represent “elegant sculptural garments, deconstructing themes of bodily autonomy, gender-based violence, morality, sexuality and censorship,” the report says, quoting Japanwala as saying, “The only way to really do it justice was to go directly to the source of it, which is the body itself unchanged.”

A graduate of New York Parsons School of Design, Japanwala regards her work as a physical symbol of resistance and resilience in the face of oppression of the female body in her conservative homeland.

Her boundaries-pushing work, which essentially involves sculpting personalized breastplates and photographs on nude female models, is a statement against honor killings, domestic violence and the societal pressures faced by Pakistani women. Japanwala told Aamina Khan of Vogue that her goal in her 2018 art collection ‘Azaadi’ was to “subvert the male gaze, reclaim the art related to the female body from the male perspectives and instead depict from the feminist perspective.”

In molding the breastplates Japanwala uses women of Karachi as models who have been directly affected and inspired by Japanwala’s definition of shamelessness. “A lot of them are artists who engage in artistic practices with different mediums; music, performance, textile, painting, and I think all of their work addresses shame and beghairiti in a really beautiful way,” 27-year-old Japanwala was quoted as saying.

Expectedly, the response to her art was fast and furious. “As her work gained visibility in editorial spreads like Vogue Spain and on celebrities like Cardi B, Julia Fox and Joy Crookes, she found herself in the eye of a new storm. The comments under pictures of her work on Instagram were littered with strangers calling her shameless, sick and obscene, in both English and Urdu,” a report in The New York Times says.

A graduate of New York Parsons School of Design, Japanwala regards her work as a physical symbol of resistance and resilience in the face of oppression of the female body in her conservative homeland. For her main exhibit, Japanwala posted an open call on Instagram, inviting femmes based in Karachi to anonymously contribute to her work by having their nipples molded. She was reportedly overwhelmed by the response from strangers and friends alike. “With 75-plus people coming to her home studio, and only so much space for silicone in her suitcase, she had to think fast, ultimately using dental amalgamate to create the nipple molds,” The Guardian says.

Japanwala lives in New Jersey with her actor-husband Fisher Neal.