Welcome to an exclusive interview with the talented artist Mahin Hussain, whose hand-painted works and risograph prints beautifully capture the richness of her Pakistani heritage and her evolving journey in the UK. In this captivating discussion, we explore Mahin’s beginnings in textile design and truck art-inspired streetwear, to launching her own brand, Mahin Hussain Accessories, and now developing prints that bridge together personal history with contemporary techniques - works that have proudly become part of our esteemed collection.
At MRKT, we are committed to amplifying the voices of global majority artists and celebrating the artistry, intention, and cultural depth reflected in every piece we curate.
Headshot of Mahin Hussain, courtesy of artist.
MRKT: Mahin, it's been so great having you part of MRKT, and I think that your work has been such an amazing compliment to the other parts of the collection that we've been having. We first discovered you at the Migration Museum in Lewisham, and I immediately knew that there was something so special about your work. And having met you virtually, you have such an amazing energy, and I think that that also transfuses into your practice. So without further ado, would you like to introduce yourself?
Mahin: Yes, my name is Mahin Hussain, and yeah, I am calling myself an artist these days. I like to hand paint my artwork and ensure that it's bright, bold and really speaks and ultimately, the idea being to just invoke emotion and engage in conversation.
MRKT: Amazing. Now, I know you mentioned that you hand paint most of your works, and I think we had a conversation about you also using the risograph. Could you explain how you perhaps mix those two methods, or walk me through that general sort of creative process behind your print methods?
Mahin: Absolutely. So risograph printing has come into my life sort of. It's been a recent discovery, so I would say about five years ago. I'm a textile designer, so I am instantly drawn to pattern and colour. So when I moved to the UK, and I was just sort of starting, or rather kickstarting my creative journey, I went back to the absolute roots and you know, the core passion that I have, which is of creating patterns. I obviously wanted it to be in a product or the output. I was kind of contemplating what I would be doing, and at that point, you know, as they say, necessity is the mother of invention, and I needed something that would complement my style. So I'm talking about bright artwork. But also, I'm quite a fan of neon colours as well. I was based in Aberdeen at the time, and there was an [risograph] open studio there. And I went for a few sessions, and very soon I realised how well it went together with my work, and how it was a complete match made in heaven, because it was so, like you pointed out, I also hand painted. So I am very much about ensuring the texture of hand quality is retained in the print. So with a risograph, it is very much also a case of quite tactile output and adds a three dimensional quality to a print, which is not what a digital print would be like, for example. So, I thought that was a good compromise. So original art gets transferred and made into a risograph. I thought it was a really good way of ensuring that the work retained its essence and personality. And as a textile designer, I've been doing screen printing. So for me, that was the next best thing– because with the risograph, every colour comes separately. So it's almost like it has probably far more sort of human involvement than, say, regular digital printers.
MRKT: Fantastic. I actually didn't know that you were a textile designer prior to doing these prints. And so were you working independently before moving to the UK in textiles? Or how did that sort of process work?
Mahin: Many years ago, I graduated as a textile designer. And I have very briefly worked with a textile mill in Pakistan and I felt like I wanted to sort of diversify a bit, so I started working with a fashion designer, but I was sort of like the lead for doing their embroideries. And this particular fashion designer created a streetwear label. And it was a very exciting time, because this was influenced by something we call, in Pakistan, truck art. So this was something that the world knows as the Pakistani sort of aesthetic, because on our streets and our roads, you've got these big trucks, heavily hand painted and decorated in incredible motifs, and they're bright and full of contrast and just really eye-catching. And so, we started a label, and so that was almost like a little foray into this amazing world of truck art. But beyond that as well, I was then at the London College of Fashion studying fashion accessories, being a textile designer. I wanted my patterns to be on a product, and I quite liked the idea of this bag being a perfect canvas for all of my artwork. And so I came here. I was at London College fashion for a year. I learned amazing things. I went back home, started my own brand, Mahin Hussain Accessories and started selling accessories in 2008. I was called a ‘bag lady’ for well over 10 years. So I kind of deviated a little bit from just being sort of just a textile designer–I think I chose a path which I felt had more flexibility and allowed me to sort of showcase what I wanted to do. I really use the canvas, you know, I created a whole range of an independence line at that time, you know, sort of politically, the situation in the country was a little, you know, sort of everything was seeming gloomy. So I created a sort of patriotic line, which became quite popular– it was just really exciting. With each collection, I really tried to explore and experiment, and that went on for over a decade. Pakistan has an amazing talent of hand embroidery craftsmen who I've had the privilege of working with. I know so many of them, and their skill knows no bounds.
Over the years, there was a whole range of surface design techniques that I was using to create these bags. And so, when I talk about my work now, I really feel like it's just as important to talk about how I've been shaped and knowing how you've evolved. People evolve as people. I've evolved that way as a designer, as an artist. I feel like it really shapes my decisions now, and I want that story to be told, because I think that it's just so, so important to everything I've done, that experience, to then come forward in what I'm doing now. It's because it almost adds more value to it and gives a context to the work and where it's come from, where it's going.
When I moved here, I resorted to what I knew and were comfortable in. I said to myself, I know bright patterns but what can I do with it which ultimately led me to explore my artwork in a risograph. So that’s what I find when I kind of do an overview of my own career, I do see how I've changed, and how the works changed as well, and I like that because I really find that as a fresh graduate, I really didn't know what I would be doing, but I was very sure about the fact that I wanted to do stuff or go into a direction that was not the path that everyone wants to go on. I wanted my journey to be true to me.
Mahin Hussain's 'Floral Vase'
MRKT: I love and have always loved hearing about people's journeys. Because when you're in the moment, you know you're a fresh graduate, you're probably thinking, ‘how do I sort of mold or create the actual career that I want?’, and then looking back, all of these different jobs or opportunities or even just collaborations have led me to where I am, and there's so many transferable moments and skills that are happening in real time. You're walking me through your journey of being a textile designer and working with a streetwear brand and thinking about the the sort of cultural atmosphere in Pakistan and you're here now, and you're really using those skills for your prints, which is so amazing and beautiful. When we were creating the collection and thinking about how we specifically work with global majority artists, it was really important for Ravista and I to think, well, it's not really just about MRKT being this massive brand where you're seeing MRKT first. How do we get the artists' voices first? And one of the things that you used to describe your work was that you were inspired by your childhood memories, and these sort of cultural motifs that come from the continent. And I wanted to know if you can expand upon that a bit more, so that not only other artists can hear more about your work, but also some of our own networks, our followers, so that they can understand what that actually means when it comes to your prints.
Mahin: Yes, it's quite interesting. A big chunk of my career was based in Pakistan, so, when you're in an environment that's familiar, you're obviously influenced by what's around you. But I think it was only when I moved to the UK, where I felt suddenly, a little, in the deep water…I wish I could describe what one feels when you migrate to another country. I migrated at 38 years of age, so I very much had lived a life. My children were born, you know, so it wasn't like I was a young creative. I was very much someone who had sort of established themselves back home. So when I moved here and I started creating, I think for me, it was incredibly important because I was like a new person in this environment, and I felt like it was almost like an introduction, my introduction to all of these new people. And how do I want them to see my work? So when I tapped into everything from the 38 years that I've spent of my life, you know, they were full of memories. I was very privileged to have grown up in a house where my parents were into art and thus we were very much exposed to local art and music from a very young age.
More so, I'm from Pakistan, so that brings its own sort of colour palette. Its culture, our history, Pakistan is very, very rich in textile there's so many things for me to get influenced by. When I say I am inspired by my childhood memories, it's essentially me tapping deeply into those sort of moments, those emotions, those feelings that I had growing up.
Each artwork that I make comes from a very, very special memory: something my dad would say to me growing up, for example, ‘Do your best, forget the rest!’ I turned the words of my father from my childhood into an artwork for the young adults of today.
As an artist, I think it's my duty to make it [the work] very personal. There's no two ways about it. This is my work and it needs to reflect my identity and my journey.
MRKT: Amazing. I guess what you're essentially saying is that the thought process and the motifs are all coming from a very intuitive, intentional place where you're being inspired by, the works around you, the environments around you, etc. And then it's also coming from your own sort of archive of memories and childhood experiences.
Mahin Hussain's Collection
MRKT: You mentioned all of these incredible aspects of Pakistan that have always inspired you and you were always exposed to that sort of artistic thinking and practice through your family moving to London. Would you say that your current environment has, alternatively made an impact on your creative practice, or perhaps enhanced it in any way?
Mahin: I think that most of what it has done is that, as a city, I find London to be incredibly inspiring. I am a city girl. Have always been. So I like the hustle & bustle.
MRKT: Me too.
Mahin: I do visit a lot of exhibitions and galleries. It is always interesting to see other people’s interpretations, almost a little glimpse into their world. I'm currently working on a commission based around London, and so I think this has been the first time that I am seeing it from a different angle. What do I take from it? And how do I then put it or make it mine?
When I moved to Aberdeen, and this is just right after lockdown, and I was just starting, I was like, how do I start? Like, you know, you just don't know what those first few steps would be towards creating something out of thin air. And I did a project called Things I See. It was all about how a person comes to live in a new place, a new environment, and those eyes are seeing everything from the first time. I think it's kind of slowly making these appearances in my work, I would say.
MRKT: Absolutely, because it's that same thing of like what we were talking about before where your creative practice kind of grows with you, and so every new environment or situation that you experience, it kind of interweaves in the work somehow. So it's really exciting to hear that you have a commission coming up, and you're able to sort of extract from London, in a way, and sort of make your own statement on that.
Mahin: Yeah, commissions are scary as well, because you're so used to doing things your own way, but with a brief in mind, suddenly it's, almost like this parameter you want to stay within.
But, you know, these kinds of challenges always help you grow, and you always take so much more from it once you've come out on the other side.
So certainly, I find that, because I do a lot of markets, I feel like I get to meet so many people and makers and so many customers, and sort of picking up things that are so interesting. There's no shortage of fun things happening around and in London, I think what I find interesting is that with my background and now this, I think it's like another element that's made its way into this whole spectrum of memories and cultural heritage that I have, so it's really exciting in that context as well.
MRKT: Oh, fantastic. Thank you so much for answering that. I have one final question, and this one is a bit macro. At MRKT, we started with this mission to confront what is currently happening in the current state of the industry, and the way that artists are able to make a living for themselves, and the ways they are able to be represented at a larger scale or a smaller scale, etc. And so what we want to do is we actually want to hear from our artists themselves. What change would you like to see for artists of colour or global majority, artists of all stages and the art world at large?
Mahin: It's quite interesting, because I am possibly the only South Asian artist at any market I've ever done. And I've done a fair amount in the last two years that I've been in London. I remember this Pakistani family had come to my stall once with their daughter, who was about 11, I think, and the mother actually brought her saying she wanted her daughter to see someone like her, do something that she is passionate about. I would say the fact that I've just migrated means we lack that network, right? I didn't grow up here, so I don't have an entire network of people who I know. And so I do feel like that's definitely a disadvantage. So just creating that audience that would be open to receiving our work will take time. t I definitely want to very loudly and proudly showcase this work that has so much depth and speaks volumes about our experiences and where we've come from. So I really find that the absolute most important thing in my eyes, is, how do we get our work across to a wider audience, and an audience that is susceptible and is open to receiving that work? Just getting other people to understand that there are other types of work out there, and having that acceptance for it.
MRKT: I love that. Thank you so much Mahin, this was really great.
Mahin: Thank you for having me and making me part of your journey, because it was wonderful to hear your ideas and how I could be a small part of it.
MRKT: You've been a massive part. Thank you so much.
Mahin Hussain's 'Guldasta'