Artwork
Images from Art Series ‘This Heirloom‘ and ‘Synthesis‘
E X H I B I T I O N S
Exploration of the Human Body at Huntington Arts Council, November 2022
A focus on the varied artistic interpretations, explorations, and representations of the human figure. Juried by artist Christophe Lima. Work shown:
The Body Has Memory (Experimental short film based on a poem featuring dance and community performance) which won Best in Show.
November 22 – December 23, 2022
Uncovered Treasures at Westbury Arts, September 2022
From paint to clay to wood to bottle caps, Uncovered Treasures is a celebration of mixed-media artwork and assemblage art. Work shown:
Memory Grid (Newsprint, fabric and acrylic paint on illustration board fitted inside an upcycled metal grille)
September 4 – 30, 2022
Ready to Wear, Arts to Hearts Project, August 2022
An international juried online exhibition featuring women artists from around the world and curated by Celine Gabrielle, Ready to Wear is about the fabrics and clothes that weave their way through our lives from birth to death. It documents, investigates and celebrates expressions of culture, time, and experience via the medium of visual arts. Work shown:
My uncle Eitizaz Hussein and my father Saleem Murtza
Nilofar Rashid – 3
My parents Nilofar Rashid and Saleem Murtza – 1
August 12 – September 12, 2022
Uncommon Threads at Huntington Arts Council on Long Island, July 2022
This juried exhibition focused on fiber arts in all its forms. Juror Patty Eljaiek invited artists to provide entries that included either fiber-based materials or unconventional materials used in typical fiber art techniques. Work shown:
Embroidered Dreams: My paternal grandmother Niaz Fatima
July 15 – August 27, 2022
Exhibition at Westbury Arts on Long Island, May 2022
Artwork from This Heirloom was shown at Westbury Arts, Westbury, Long Island, as part of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The exhibition showcased original works by artists representative of the Pan-Asian community and was organized around the theme “Honoring the Past and/or Creating the Future.” Work shown:
My maternal grandfather Rashid Ahmad
My paternal grandfather Chaudhry Habib Ali
My mother Nilofar Rashid as a little girl
May 6 – May 27, 2022
This Heirloom at Rochester Museum & Science Center in 2020-21
The Changemakers: Rochester Women Who Changed the World was a community-curated exhibition which aimed to inspire and empower by sharing stories of regional innovators. It shared compelling, authentic, and often untold narratives of more than one hundred regional and Haudenosaunee women. The exhibition celebrated both historical and contemporary women from the Rochester Region and sovereign Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
Work shown:
My paternal grandmother Niaz Fatima
My mother Nilofar Rashid and her sister
October 9, 2020 – May 16, 2021
This Heirloom at Current Seen, the Rochester Biennale in 2019
Current Seen is a multi-venue, contemporary art biennial bringing together new curatorial voices and artists along historic East Ave. and Main St. The Gallery at 540WMain and Douglass Auditorium at 36 King Street are part of over 15 venues that are participating in this biennial celebration of big ideas in small spaces.
In this series the artist Mara Ahmed has re-created her own history by using old, black and white photographs of her ancestors, juxtaposing them against South Asian architectural details, and subverting boundaries by placing them on the wrong side of the India-Pakistan border.
October 4 – November 17, 2019
This Heirloom at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center in 2018
This Heirloom was exhibited at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, in California, as part of a retrospective including screenings of A Thin Wall and The Muslims I Know.
February 7 – April 26, 2018
Artist’s talk at Colacino Gallery, Nazareth College in 2014
The Nazareth College Department of Art’s Colacino Gallery will host “This Heirloom,” a multi-media exhibition of film-inspired collages by Mara Ahmed beginning Wednesday, January 15, 2014, through February 7, with an artist’s reception on January 24 from 5.30-7.30 p.m., and an artist’s talk on January 24 at 6.30 p.m.
Exhibition: January 15 – February 7, 2014
THIS HEIRLOOM (2012-14)
This Heirloom was inspired by my film work on ‘A Thin Wall,’ a film about the 1947 partition of India.
I think a lot about identity, about being a hybrid, about the segmentation of one’s personality, one’s worldview, one’s emotions and their reconstitution into something whole. I worked for 7 years on a film about the partition of India, about the segmentation of history, of people’s cultures and identities. Once partition occurred, Pakistanis and Indians had to re-invent themselves in more concrete, sharply defined ways and these were by definition ahistorical, unidimensional representations of who they had been for thousands of years. Today an excess of information is instantly accessible, yet its synthesis into something meaningful is missing. As our thinking becomes more fragmented and short-term, the practice of re-writing history in order to create more urgent, black and white narratives has become easier. Our link to the past seems to be breaking down. I long for such a connection.
Poet Agha Shahid Ali talks about this inextricable bond in his poem “Snowmen.” His ancestors came from the Himalayas and settled in Kashmir.
This heirloom,
his skeleton under my skin, passed
from son to grandson,
generations of snowmen on my back.
They tap every year on my window,
their voices hushed to ice.
In another project I was involved in, I was struck by the importance of witnessing as a dynamic radical act, a correction of ahistoricity and a discovery of our own truth. It occurred to me that my ancestors too witnessed much turbulent history and that their witnessing is, to some extent, what binds us together.
Finally, borders and checkpoints have never meshed with my own life experiences. They are wielded for the benefit of capitalism, settler colonialism, state building, and empire. They formulate and maintain world hierarchies. In this art series, I subverted borders by placing my Pakistani and Indian family members on the wrong side of the India-Pakistan divide.
These are some of the ideas behind this series of artwork. (Ahmed, 2013)
Work included in this series:
My paternal grandfather Chaudhry Habib Ali
standing in front of the Jama Masjid, Fatehpur Sikri, India
Newsprint, fabric and acrylic paint on watercolor paper
My maternal grandfather Rashid Ahmad Qureshi
seated in front of Delhi gate, Lahore, Pakistan
Newsprint, fabric and acrylic paint on watercolor paper
My father Saleem Murtza as a young boy
in front of the Pearl Mosque, Lahore Fort, Pakistan
Newsprint, fabric and acrylic paint on watercolor paper
My mother Nilofar Rashid as a little girl
Lord Ellenborough’s Folly on the Calcutta Course, India
Newsprint, fabric and acrylic paint on watercolor paper
My paternal grandfather Chaudhry Habib Ali
in Lahore, Pakistan
Newsprint, fabric and acrylic paint on watercolor paper
My mother Nilofar Rashid as a young woman
Bijapur Ibrahim Rauza Mosque, in India
Newsprint, fabric and acrylic paint on watercolor paper
Embroidered dreams:
My paternal grandmother Niaz Fatima
Newsprint, fabric and acrylic paint on illustration board inside antique wood frame
My mother Nilofar Rashid and her sister
Graphic collage on paper
My father Saleem Murtza – 1
Graphic collage on paper
My mother Nilofar Rashid – 2
Graphic collage on paper
My mother Nilofar Rashid – 3
Graphic collage on paper
My mother Nilofar Rashid – 4
Graphic collage on paper
My mother Nilofar Rashid – 5
Graphic collage on paper
My mother Nilofar Rashid – 6
Graphic collage on paper
My parents Nilofar Rashid and Saleem Murtza – 1
Graphic collage on paper
My parents Nilofar Rashid and Saleem Murtza – 2
Graphic collage on paper
My paternal grandfather Chaudhry Habib Ali – 1
Graphic collage on paper
My paternal grandfather Chaudhry Habib Ali – 2
Graphic collage on paper
My maternal great-grandfather Adbul Majeed Qureshi
Graphic collage on paper
My uncle Eitizaz Hussein and my father Saleem Murtza
Graphic collage on paper
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Artist’s talk at Kinetic Gallery, SUNY Geneseo in 2008
Synthesis Exhibition at Kinetic Gallery: October 25 – November 25, 2008
SYNTHESIS (2004)
This exhibit is unique in that it brings together many facets of my work – collages with South Asian fabric, graphic work inspired by Robert Rauschenberg, lithography turned into multi-media art, color photography, and film. But let me explain more.
I was born in Lahore, in Pakistan, and grew up in the middle of Europe, in Brussels. French was the first language I learned to read and write and for much of my youth I thought of myself as being European. During my teenage years we returned to Pakistan and things began to change. Synthesis is a process in which two or more pre-existing elements are combined together, resulting in the formation of something new. This process continued and was transformed once more when I moved to the United States, after I got married. Another culture, another aesthetic, another sensibility.
It took many years for me to become somewhat comfortable in my skin. It can be uncomfortable to never be one thing, but it’s also incredibly exciting and I hope that you will enjoy some mementos from that long and fascinating journey. (Ahmed, 20008)
Work included in this series:
Ibn-e-Insha
Inspired by Ibn-e-Insha, an Urdu poet and satirist famous for his travelogues, which are replete with colorful characters and places. Digital Collage, December 2004
Bumblebee
Conveys the hum and busy work of a bumblebee. Digital Collage, November 2004
Verdure
Digital Collage, November 2004
Lahore from a rooftop
Depicts a view of Lahore, from a rooftop. Flat and accessible, rooftops are an extension of living space in Lahori homes. During Basant, the kite-flying festival that celebrates the arrival of spring, rooftops are crowded with people flying colorful kites and enjoying lively soirees. Digital Collage, December 2004
NYC billboard
Evokes city billboards – chipped and peeling after years of usage, and layer upon layer of commercial messages. Digital Collage, November 2004
Sunset
Digital Collage, November 2004
Chandelier
Digital Collage, December 2004
The other side of the fence
A play on being engaged vs. just “sitting on the fence” and on how we build fences to keep what’s different out. Digital Collage, December 2004
Imagologues deconstruct woman
This Rorschach collage series was inspired by the word imagologue. Coined by the Czech writer Milan Kundera in his book “Immortality,” imagologue is a combination of image and ideologue. It encompasses advertising agencies, political campaign managers, publicists, and image consultants – entities that peddle image to the detriment of real content. This series looks at how women’s bodies, and in many cases their body parts, are used to sell products and services by manufacturing extrinsic value. Women are stereotyped as being aggressive, sexy, seductive or simply decorative in order to create a marketable image that transcends the actual nature and function of a product. Digital Collage, September 2004
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FLUX (2002)
This series of artwork was created in North Woodmere, Long Island. Coming soon.
Great art has the possibility to evade our lives; it makes us feel something before we know how to express it.