Afraa Ahmed is a Yemeni multimedia artist and graphic designer living in Malaysia who harnesses her experience as an expatriate to explore notions of place, displacement, and isolation. By printing...
Afraa Ahmed is a Yemeni multimedia artist and graphic designer living in Malaysia who harnesses her experience as an expatriate to explore notions of place, displacement, and isolation. By printing the motif of a qamariya, a multicolored stained-glass window that is found in many Yemeni households, Ahmed mirrors the act of stamping letters to loved ones living nations away. One of the most recognizable Yemeni architectural features, the qamariya is often conflated in the memories of Yemeni people with the meaning of home. Despite the impact of conflict within her home country, global sickness and closed borders, these printed windows offer a view into the resilience, desire for connection, and a prevailing yearning for home that has been prompted by the isolation of quarantine.
Ahmed holds a degree in Multimedia Technology from Asia Pacific University. Her work explores the relationship between constructed landscapes and those that inhabit them. Her recent projects examine the human impact of ancient heritage sites threatened by war in Yemen. She has exhibited in both Malaysia and Yemen, and was commissioned by the Museum of the UN to participate in the exhibition My Mark: My City. Ahmed is a member of the artist collective Al Yamaniah.
This exceptional scene created by the qamariya has been the living norm for decades in every Yemeni house and in the memories of Yemenis; it is directly associated with the meaning of home. As a result, qamariya has become the most recognizable Yemeni architectural feature known today.