Of Holding On And Letting Go

Galerie ISA is proud to showcase artist Maha Ahmed’s (b.1989) newest body of work ‘Of Holding On and Letting Go.’ The title of this show references a quote from Persian poet Rumi—‘Life Is A Balance Of Holding On And Letting Go.’ These works reflect Ahmed’s quest in finding that elusive balance.

The genesis of this series was the Persian poem, ‘The Conference of The Birds’ by Farid ud-Din Attar, where the birds of the world gather in search of the Simorgh, the benevolent and mythical character in Persian literature. Their journey through the seven valleys is arduous and revelatory—at the end only thirty birds remain to discover that they themselves are the Simorgh; what they were searching for exists within their own reflection, their collective self.

For Ahmed, this poem ignited the desire to initially create a narrative based series, but just like the birds, the artist’s journey through this allegory aided her in a process of discovery; making the works a more personal rumination of identity, of cultural collisions and of society vs self.

These works continue in the trajectory of Ahmed’s practice—a tradition of miniature painting and a fantastical world of mythical and hybrid creatures, this time through the lens of motherhood. As a new mother, Ahmed dives headfirst into the crisis of self and the process of learning and unlearning, of change and reflection that accompanies this new identity. Like the split between self and other that mothers experience, each work is divided in half—one half a portrait of the attribute, while the other an encounter with a creature.

Populating Ahmed’s magical world are wondrous beings—the Bird, a symbol of self; the Tigress, strength in solitude and maternal ferocity; the Raven, a symbol of powerful wisdom; the Hoopoee, the guide leading the birds to Simorgh; the Koi, an Eastern symbol of resilience and strength; the Dragon, symbolizing the unknown. These creatures all inhabit spaces that are illusive, created completely out of the artist’s imagination, reminiscent of the natural world but consciously unbound by borders or geography.

A trained miniaturist, Ahmed is firm in the meticulousness of her work, its intricacy a direct complement to her meditations on introspection and identity. These paintings are created using age-old traditional miniature painting techniques: flat washes, line work and “pardakht” (dry-brush). She uses a mix of gouache and watercolors on coffee-stained paper, also referencing classical Japanese painting styles and motifs to reiterate the sense of loneliness and the disconnect that her oeuvre explores.

Through this series, Ahmed deconstructs the often problematic notion of balance; the shift-shaping concept that is meant to sugarcoat the tight-rope that mothers are meant to glide across while grappling with new responsibilities, a changing sense of self, both internal and external, and creating a space in a world that they often feel removed from, and yet wholly belong to.

Priyanka R. Khanna