b. (1975)
Wahida Ahmed is an Indian artist based in Guwahati, Assam, who specializes in multimedia art. Ahmed’s enquiry is guided by techniques and media rooted in hybrid cultures and folk traditions of Assam. Being self-taught, she has developed a unique visual language that draws inspiration from both her modern and traditional backgrounds. Taking found objects as a point of departure her practice engages a range of issues riddling the socio-political fabric of the state. Through metaphors, anecdotes, and analogies both obscure and common, Ahmed’s layered mixed media works articulate experiences, perspectives, and dilemmas unique to Assamese Muslim subjectivity caught in an existential storm. Subsequently, a shared syncretic past is invoked and migrant patterns highlighted in a bid to qualify the illusion of a standardized cultural identity.
Wahida has been part of shows at Apparao Gallery, Anant Art Gallery, Akar Parkar, Palette Art Gallery and Desire Machine collective. Apart from her visual art, Wahida has also authored three collections of Assamese poetry titled - Bindu Alekh Bindu / Jibon Dristi and Ekho biyug ek.
BLURRED PERIMETERS, initiated in 2014 and founded by Wahida Ahmed, is an ongoing social initiative in the context of Northeast India to facilitate space for social and artistic inquiries. The multimodal project seeks to incentivize local crafts and alternative modes of living by facilitating a knowledge exchange between the urban and its suburban periphery. Blurred Perimeters is a social experiment that takes shape through workshops, exhibitions, seminars, and multiple pedagogical processes in the context of Northeast India and beyond.