Collective Objects, 2021
Chiffon, muslin, cotton, polyester, velvet, postcard, faux leather, inkjet print on chiffon, paper, clear vinyl and found fabric
203 x 350,5 cm
[Photo: Nabil J. Harb. Courtesy Angama Amiri and albertz benda]
Hangama Amiri ponders her country of origin, Pakistan, where she lived until the age of six, by reweaving her childhood memories related to Afghan costumes and Islamic culture, and presenting them from a different angle.
Collective Objects is part of a corpus of autobiographical works on the concept of home, derived from the artist’s explorations in the New York community of Afghan immigrants and in their business activities (shops, bazaars, restaurants), which allowed her to make the memory of her native country come to the surface. By joining and overlapping multiple textiles and different images, Amiri evokes the fragmented nature of the very concept of memory. It recalls her feelings of belonging, familiarity, and nostalgia for her past, but at the same time it underlies the socio-political issues that are related to her native land, the commercial exchanges between the East and the West, and the concept of identity in a globalized world.
Hangama Amiri received a BFA in 2005 from Olimov College in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. After settling in Canada with her family, she earned a second BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art in 2012 and an MFA from the Yale School of Art, New Haven, in 2020. She has received numerous awards, including a grant from the Toronto Arts Council in 2017 and a Canada Fulbright grant in 2015. Her work can be found in the collections of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, the Royal Bank of Canada, and the Nova Scotia Art Bank, among others. She had her first solo show in New York, Wandering Amidst the Colors, at albertz benda in 2021. Other recent exhibitions include Spectators of a New Dawn alla Towards Gallery, Toronto and Bazaar, A Recollection of Home at T293 Gallery in Rome.