The Indoor Garden

As a metaphor for the experience of loss, I use printmaking techniques of woodcut and image transfer to memorialise the floral patterns of carpets and upholstery textiles that belonged to my father. I study grief as a state of transition, from experiencing to overcoming loss, in relation to how the preservation of carpets becomes a method of retaining memories. The carpet becomes a carrier of accumulated loss with material and emotional roots in both domestic and historic contexts, captured in the imperfections and damage that affects the tactile surface.
I developed a technique of transfer where the photographic print shifts entirely from the original paper print to a new surface, with no traces of the original left behind and new changes of fading and tears in the print. This draws parallels to changing upholstery covers and the movement of carpets across time, ownership and domestic spaces.
– Iman Ahmed

Slide 1:
Darya Paar Bagh
2024
Woodcut and glue-based image transfer on wood panel

Slide 2,3:
detailed image of ‘Darya Paar Bagh’

Slide 4:
The Spectral City I (diptych)
2024
Repeated emboss on 300gsm archival paper, AP

For the exhibition ’ode to the ordinary – uncommon dialogues’ curated by Nurayah Sheikh.
Exhibition continues until March 20, Monday till Saturday, 10am to 5pm (Ramadan timings).

Please email or dm for further information.
@koelgallery