Meet Nazish Chunara | Aeronautics Researcher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nazish Chunara and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nazish, what inspires you?
My artwork and research are inspired by memory; it’s fluctuation, it’s identity, and how memories are born. As a visual artist, I have tried to find inspiration through memory. How can we make art without knowledge? And how can we have knowledge without memory? It’s this cycle that tends to shift; it doesn’t stay the same. For instance, the history of my artwork goes from abstract, unorganized, and singular media to abstract, expressive, and repetitive. This is only because I began recalling memories; that knowledge finally surfaced long enough to translate onto paper. My research on drones, trauma, and conflict zones follows a similar pattern, except that this is relatively new. First, I discovered the drone. Then, I examined it’s relationship to humans, and now I want to know how to organize these relationships through studies of perception. Overall, my inspiration stems from the evolution of knowledge in the confined spaces of memory.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My art is a method for reliving the decisions I’ve made thus far. They are comments on my environment; they are questions about the bigger picture in society. For instance, how does language work? How does wealth change with identity? How does knowledge or education help me? The pieces are like summaries of any given point in my life. It is a working diary, almost.

I don’t know that any of this sets me apart from anyone else. I am, however, most proud of my ability to mesh various aspects of my life. Getting here, and I mean emotionally, was not easy. It’s been a battle, it feels like, but a battle of my own making. Painting, researching, writing, communication, emerging technologies, history….it all eventually informs one another, and that is what I hope my art is bridging together in bits and pieces.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Some of the most interesting things include camping in Mojave, watching airplanes from the space port, driving to Bart’s books in Ojai, and sunbathing in Malibu.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Everyone I’ve met has more or less inspired me to continue painting, researching, reading. The artists I’ve worked with, my current mentor, my current bosses, the long-distance friends whose opinions matter the most…they are all silent but active stakeholders; they’re not just bystanders. So, thank you to them.

Website: www.nazishchunara.com

Instagram: @zishery