Outsiders and Others is proud to present Seema Shah: Missing Pieces, the artist's first solo exhibition with us. 

Seema Shah is a Vancouver-based self-taught collage artist and writer.

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Missing Pieces offers a subtle and nuanced representation of the lived experience of complex trauma, challenging preconceived ideas about how personal trauma manifests and is creatively expressed. The work doesn’t scream out, but rather calls the viewer in.

This exhibition is centered around a collection of 366 miniature collages on 2 3/4 ” x 1 3/8” shipping tags, one created every day of 2024 as part of a one-year project. The viewer is invited to come close to see the details and take time to experience these works.

Examining the collaged tags collectively, themes common to complex PTSD emerge, including fragmentation, disconnection, and isolation. Viewed together, this daily record conveys the relentlessness of the long-term effects of complex trauma. 

An additional 100 tags created in 2014, as part of a similar project, show the persistence of these effects over time. The 2014 tags are a mix of drawings and collages, and represent the beginning of Seema’s journey as a collage artist.

Collages on vintage envelopes – a material connection to the past - complement the tags.

Seema’s creative process is intuitive and largely informed by her lived experience of C-PTSD. Spontaneous associations and unexpected juxtapositions give form to subconscious and embodied “knowing,” the place where disconnected traumatic memories live. Metaphor and symbolic imagery capture a felt sense, translate whatis beyond words, evoke connections between past and present, and link the personal to the universal.​

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What is Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) includes many of the symptoms of PTSD, including re-experiencing (e.g., flashbacks and nightmares), avoidance (e.g., avoiding distressing memories and external reminders), and hyperarousal (a heightened state of alertness and reactivity).

Because complex PTSD is most often the result of trauma that is chronic and experienced during an earlier stage ofdevelopment than PTSD, its impact on the nervous system tends to be more deeply ingrained. In addition to manysymptoms of PTSD, long-term effects of complex PTSD include difficulty regulating emotions, a negative self- concept, and difficulty forming and maintaining relationships.

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