Warda Ahmed, What Would I Rather, 2021
Visual artist, teacher, and illustrator Warda Ahmed is an artist that lives and works in the Helsinki metropolitan area. Ahmed is currently working on a project funded by the Kone Foundation. Ahmed makes comics about her family’s migration stories. Ahmed writes and draws the stories that she thinks need to be recorded: stories about migration, parallel realities, Afro-European identity, the stories that are her heritage. In 2019, the comic anthology Sisaret1918, to which Ahmed also contributed, won the Comic Finlandia award.
The starting points of this work were related to relaxation and finding one’s own space. The picture has direct and indirect hints from which you can deduce the soundtrack of the illustration.
Perhaps what makes me who I am is not only the things I have now but also the things I have lost or I long for.
READPlaces
What if nothing doesn’t actually ever get ruined? Or at least not that bad. Maybe it just finished completely different than you thought.
READMitäpä jos (What if)
The starting points of this work were related to relaxation and finding one’s own space. The picture has direct and indirect hints from which you can deduce the soundtrack of the illustration.
READWhat Would I Rather
I find the topic of artist residencies and friendships very personal and relevant for me as an artist. At any residence, time always seems to run out and eventually, people leave for different roads. The image hints at moments where activities have been interrupted: food is on the table, sketches and supplies are wide open, and the outdoor space flows into the interior.
READFive timeframes, countless companionships
