Collection Postcard
Ayan Farah, Air Architecture, 2012

Ayan Farah
Air Architecture, 2012
Acrylic, fabric dye, photographic emulsion, alcohol, vinegar on silk cotton
170 x 130 cm

Farah makes mixed media works on canvas, paintings of sorts, though if paint is used, it is joined by a wide variety of other markings, such as organic pigments and dyes. Her canvasses are vintage linens, jutes or cottons that bare their historic traces, sourced from 19th-century houses. In this work Farah has used a delicate silk cotton that is thin enough to show the stretcher through the fabric.

The bleaching, staining or dying of the materials can takes months or even years to complete. At times she exposes her fabrics materials to sunlight and wind, or buries them underground, so that these elements become part of the material process.

Her works are formed by the geology and socio-cultural concepts of place of where she sources her pigments and fabrics, which come from all over the world. Often using place to reflect on personal history, Farah’s practice speaks to identity, visibility and oppression, and what those mean in a highly globalised world.