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Interrogating how landscapes can be contested sites of memory and identity through collage
In this meticulously assembled collage, artist Henna Nadeem combines an image of a waterfall overlaid with a lace-like collage to create an intricate and visually arresting work which interrogates how landscapes can be contested sites of memory and identity. Drawing on the rich visual languages of Islamic art and Japanese patterns, Nadeem’s collages destabilise, disrupt and reconstruct familiar views into patterned structures which invite us to consider what is visible, what is marginalised and what has been deliberately cut away.
Autograph commissioned Nadeem to make this work for the Autograph exhibition Landscape Trauma in the Age of Scopophilia, curated by Richard Hylton and held at Southwark Park Galleries’ Dilston Gallery in 2001. The exhibition sought to provoke a re-examination of our relationship to landscape - be it geographical, cultural or political - by examining the interplay between these different dimensions, and featured collages by Nadeem alongside work by Annabel Howland, Ingrid Pollard, Camila Sposati and The Search for Terrestrial Intelligence (S.T.I. Consortium).
Describing her work in the exhibition catalogue, Hylton states: "Nadeem’s collages force our eyes to flit between the whole and the skeletal patterned duplicate, which is overlaid. To take on board the coherent whole means seeing the fractured surface; viewing the fractured surface means we cannot see the whole."
Henna Nadeem (b. 1966, Leeds) is a visual artist known for her intricate photographic collages and large-scale public installations. Combining geometric and organic patterns with images of urban and rural landscapes, her work draws from diverse historical and cultural influences, including Islamic art and Japanese geometry. She repurposes imagery from tourist guides, magazines, and mass media to create layered compositions.
Nadeem earned her BFA from John Moores University (Liverpool) in 1989 and her MFA from the Royal College of Art (London) in 1993. Her work has been exhibited at institutions such as Norwich Castle Museum & Gallery (UK), South London Gallery (UK), ICA (UK), Tate Britain (UK), and Koldo Mitxelena Kulturunea (Spain). In 2004, her work was installed at Piccadilly Circus Underground Station.
She has completed residencies at Camden Art Centre (UK) and Artspace (Australia) and was commissioned by Photoworks in 2006. Her work is held in major collections including Autograph (UK), the British Council (UK), the Government Art Collection (UK) and the V&A (UK). Nadeem lives and works in London.
10 Oct 2025 – 21 Mar 2026
A free exhibition examining political dissent and erasure through the idea of collage
Banner image: Henna Nadeem, Big Black , 2000, from the series Landscape Trauma. © and courtesy the artist.
Exhibition image: Sabrina Tirvengadum and Mark Allred, Family [detail], 2023.
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