Hangama Amiri: A Homage to Home

Related Organization: Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

Afghan Canadian artist Hangama Amiri combines painting and printmaking techniques with textiles, weaving together stories based on memories of her homeland and diasporic experience. 

Amiri fled Kabul with her family in 1996 when she was seven years old. Moving through numerous countries over several years, they immigrated to Canada in 2005 when Amiri was a teenager. Amiri’s choice of materials stems from autobiographical origins—her mother taught her to sew and her uncle was a tailor. Her textiles also reference the colors and fabrics she remembers in the bazaars and on the streets in Kabul. She sources her materials from an Afghan-owned shop in New York City’s fashion district, collaging with fabric and painting on the surfaces. Large-scaled with frayed edges, Amiri’s textile works are made from layering fabrics, piecing and sewing them together, so the fragments collectively characterize her home from a distance. Centered on the lives of women, she builds interiors that capture her protagonists within domestic and entrepreneurial spaces and amplify a collective struggle for women’s rights in Afghanistan and around the world.

This exhibition is the artist’s solo museum debut and is accompanied by the artist’s first museum publication. The exhibition will be complemented by free public programs for a variety of ages and interests.
Hangama Amiri: A Homage to Home is organized by Amy Smith-Stewart, chief curator, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, where it debuted in February 2023.

Image credit: Hangama Amiri (Afghan-Canadian, born 1989), Departure, 2022, muslin, cotton, polyester, clear vinyl, iridescent paper, faux leather, chiffon, and found fabric, 68 ½ x 85 inches. Courtesy of the artist and T293, Rome. © Hangama Amiri. Photo: Jason Mandella.