Month: August 2022

Memory Grid at Westbury Arts

Excited that my mixed media piece, ‘Memory Grid,’ has been selected for a juried exhibition at Westbury Arts! The theme is ‘Uncovered Treasures,’ a celebration of mixed-media art and assemblage.

Memory Grid is inspired by the idea of caching memories inside a data grid. It’s engineered to replicate computing architecture where vast amounts of data are sorted and stored using grid technology. But instead of binary data, the piece is meant to archive pictures, colors, and textures. Instead of neat partitions, the elements in each compartment overflow and overlap with adjacent cells, creating complex patterns and whimsical moods. The intent is to create an emotional landscape that beckons and moves on account of these transgressions.

Newsprint, fabric and acrylic paint on illustration board fitted inside an upcycled metal grille
Dim: 27 ½ in x 22 in

The opening reception will be on Sunday, September 4th, 2022 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM at 255 Schrenck Ave, in Westbury. Tickets are free but pls register.

#westburyarts #uncoveredtreasures #artexhibition #mixedmedia #assemblage #assemblageart #maraahmed #memorygrid #westburyny #longisland

Memory Grid, Mixed Media Object by Mara Ahmed

Devastating floods in Pakistan

Pakistan has 7,253 glaciers, the highest number outside the world’s polar regions. Global warming is melting them at an alarming rate, causing flash floods across the country. A state of emergency has been declared in Pakistan. The situation is desperate.

The death toll has risen to 937 (as of yesterday), 30 million people are without shelter, 23 districts in the province of Sindh have been declared ‘calamity-hit’ as floods submerge southern Pakistan, hundreds of schools and more than 20,000 homes have been destroyed in Baluchistan, millions of cattle and entire crops are lost, help and donations are needed immediately. This has been going on since May but no one’s talking about it. Pls donate to organizations working on the ground. Here is a list.

We donated to the Edhi Foundation.

a sad goodbye to nayyara noor

this exquisite voice. this song (‘we were once beautiful’). this stream of consciousness poem by ahmed shamim. islamabad in the 1980s, sparsely populated, verdant, pristine. one ptv channel with a show that everyone watched at the same time, every week. a young sahira kazmi cast with her husband rahat kazmi in a series unwisely inspired by ‘the fountainhead.’ and there we were, recent transplants from brussels, finding our way in a different universe – in a city mostly inhabited by government officials and diplomats, in schools where we were learning urdu poetry, reading stories by saadi in farsi and memorizing quranic verses in arabic. the disorientation of it all, but also a challenge. we would study all day after school, spend time one by one with our mom, our translator, teacher, and emotional safe space. this song by nayyara noor always playing in the background. thank u for the steady beauty of ur voice and its presence in our lives. rest in peace.

Emancipated Breath: A Prelude

Dear friends, I am thrilled to share this brilliant dance shot by Jesus Duprey at High Falls (Rochester, NY), choreographed and performed by Andrew Evans, title by Erica Jae, with original music composed by Tom Davis. This is a prelude to The Injured Body: A Film about Racism in America. I am back at work editing this documentary and listening to some pretty badass women of color. I created the trailer for the film back in 2020 but then life happened (we moved thrice in two years during the pandemic). I am excited to come back to this beautiful project. I will be sharing as I edit and hope for your support throughout this delicate process. My goal is to complete the film in 2022. But first, here is Emancipated Breath.

#prelude #theinjuredbody #documentary #emancipatedbreath #highfallsny #rochesterny #dance #tomdavis #andrewdavid #maraahmed #thebreathisthebridge #thebodyspeaks

delusions of the twitterati

all social media platforms are terrible (including FB, IG, whatsapp, etc) but i find twitter particularly unsettling. it’s not just the vicious back-stabbing and habitual fightiness, it’s also the unbearable snobbery. this idea that twitter is better than other social media for its 280-character repartees from the woke literati. some are better than others, but puleeezzz…

The Way Forward by Teresa Werth | The Warp & Weft

Friends, I’m happy to share a new Warp & Weft story today. It’s a unique retelling of the pandemic from the perspective of a funeral celebrant. Written and read beautifully by Terry Werth, pls listen to ‘The Way Forward’:

“I worked to control my outrage, fear, and ignorance by focusing on the skills I had to help people navigate their loss, grief and trauma in healthy and effective ways. I validated their despair (and my own) by stepping back to try and see the big picture: what can we learn from this experience? How can we heal ourselves and help others heal?”

Listen and read here.

#thewarpweft #thewarpandweft #archive #audioarchive #multilingualarchive #storytelling #oralhistories #yearofthepandemic #terrywerth #teresawerth #wayforward #maraahmedstudio #maraahmed #rochesterny #newyork #unitedstates #2020andbeyond #covid19 #funeralcelebrant #pandemic #healing #helpingothers #loss #lovedones #sayinggoodbye #grief #trauma

the attack on salman rushdie

needless to say we all condemn the attack on salman rushdie. i would condemn the knifing of any human being, including clarence thomas and donald trump. i liked rushdie’s work back in the day when he wrote ‘midnight’s children’ and was friends with edward said. but his transformation over the years into an imperial mascot is problematic to say the least. he supported the invasion of iraq, denies the existence of islamophobia (it’s hard to miss in the west but also in his home country of india where violence against muslims is reaching genocidal levels), and wrote unoriginal, bigoted, ignorant opinions like this in the NYT: “yes, this is about islam. if terrorism is to be defeated, the world of islam must take on board the secularist-humanist principles on which the modern is based.” the modern? like school shootings and patriarchal control over women’s bodies in the US? or the ongoing killing of children in gaza by the modern, democratic state of israel? or the humanist invasions and occupations of a series of muslim majority countries? this is basic colonial nonsense, not intellectual or moral courage. at the same time that rushdie was being attacked, this was happening: layan musleh hamdi al-shaer, aged 10, died from injuries she sustained in an israeli strike on gaza on august 5th. she died alone in a hospital because israel wouldn’t allow anyone from her family to be with her. she was a 10-year old child with so much life ahead of her. why are we not all decrying the attacks on her body and publicly mourning her death? many will say it’s different. she wasn’t a writer. she wasn’t famous. she wasn’t a western mascot. but there’s the rub.

Serena Williams retires

Things I missed while on vacation: Serena Williams retires at 41

From Dave Zirin: Serena Williams already had been a pro for five years in 2000 when ESPN put out its top 100 athletes of the 20th century list. Four women in the top 50. Two Black women in the top 50, none higher than 22. This was the world she stepped into and audaciously chose to rule.

Today, my list of best athletes ever would have Ali number one, maybe Thorpe at 2. But if you were asking who had the best CAREER in sports history, taking into account length and consistency from start to finish, it’s Serena & then LeBron. She’s that mighty. All hail the Queen.

My essay for Ready to Wear – an online exhibition

The Ready to Wear online exhibition is now open! You can check out a virtual exhibition space, download the catalog, and read my essay under Explore Exhibiting Artists here.

“In the 1960s, when my parents (Nilofar Rashid and Saleem Murtza) met in college, fell in love, and got married, Pakistan was still a relatively new country. My parents’ generation was the first to be solidly grounded in Pakistan. Having been recently introduced to the world at large, those who hailed from the bourgeoisie saw themselves as “progressive” and were influenced by western culture. Fashion became a way to express their newly minted national identity.

Young men adopted the Teddy Boy style of the Beatles, with boxy jackets and fitted trousers. Young women wore the traditional shalwar kameez but switched it up by making the kameez shorter and tighter, aligning it with the shift dresses they saw in fashion magazines. The bottom edge of the shalwar became narrower in keeping with men’s tapered pants. They wore head scarves and oversized shades like Audrey Hepburn and Bollywood’s Saira Banu and Mumtaz.

This hybrid sense of fashion seemed to cross borders and crack open binaries such as east and west. My mother wore a gauze dupatta over her short, dress-like kameez. She refused to give up the dainty sandals that went with her outfits but would wear socks when it got cold in Lahore. For his wedding, my father paired a gaudy sehra (headdress commonly worn by the groom) with a tailored suit. He sits proudly with his elder brother, Eitizaz Hussein.

Borders and partitions are recent aberrations. A broad span of history, that goes beyond the creation of nation states, can give us a better sense of our complex, intertwined realities, and allow us to imagine better futures.”

Eitizaz Hussein and Saleem Murtza
Nilofar Rashid – 3
Nilofar Rashid and Saleem Murtza – 1

Ready to Wear online exhibition

More to post about Providence, but wanted to share that my artwork has been selected for an international juried exhibition. Hosted by Arts To Hearts Project and guest curated by artist Celine Gabrielle, this online exhibition will open on August 12th.

The topic, Ready to Wear, was a bit different for me. But it struck me that many of the collages from “This Heirloom” speak to fashion in Pakistan in the 1960s. What an interesting time that was – soon after the heartbreak of the 1947 partition but also in the afterglow of what a break from British colonialism could mean. So I wrote about fashion, national identities, and borders, and submitted three artworks. They were selected and will be part of an online group show.

The opening is on Friday Aug 12, and the show will be online until September 12th. Can’t wait to share my write-up and artwork with you all <3

olivia newton-john (1948-2022)

she was sandy when we were little kids, the girl everyone wanted to be coz she got to dance with john travolta. soon after, she became the beauty in harem pants who sang about xanadu, kublai khan’s “pleasure dome.” never saw the film but loved the joy in that song. later still, as we were growing up, her music video “physical” became ubiquitous – it had a totally different vibe. i wasn’t sure i liked the transformation but it was hard not to watch. in the 90s, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and fought valiantly and openly. everyone rooted for her. she started a wellness and cancer research center and supported this work thru a foundation. she wanted to imagine a world beyond cancer. we will get there one day inshallah. may she rest in peace.