Jaali Installations
2013 - 2022
Jaali-Hanging Gardens, MDF screen carvings & enamel paint, 9’ x 9’ x 9’
Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center
Memphis College of Art
Memphis, TN
Plain Gallery, University of Memphis
Memphis, TN
Hyde Gallery
Memphis, TN
LuminArte Gallery
Dallas, TX
Nashville International Airport
Nashville, TN
MDF screen carvings, wood, enamel paint
Top row: Hanging Gardens, 9’ x 9’ x 9’
2nd & 3rd rows: Contemporary Ruins I, 9’ x 9’ x 9’
3rd & 4th rows: Contemporary Ruins II, 9’ x 12’ x 4”
Right 4th row: Untitled, 8.5’ x 3.5’ x 7”
5th row: Garden-scape, 9’ x 14’ x 4”
Bottom row: Urban Ruins, 14’ x 10’
Jaali II: Only from the heart can you touch the sky. —Rumi, 2022
I based the series on carved geometric patterns evoking Islamic architecture, which for me represented my cultural heritage. As the life I had built as an immigrant to the United States fell apart, I broke the screens I had designed, reassembling them into new structures. At a time of trauma and loss, the reconfigured forms were metaphors for life rebuilt, of creating new realities from broken parts, evoking hope, vision for a future, transcendence. Destruction and resurrection; our shared humanity and cosmic interconnectedness illuminated through sacred geometry and patterns; healing and transformation through art and nature: these themes lie at the heart this work.
© 2014-2024 Sarah Ahmad. All Rights Reserved.