By Logan Monteleone
Business and Distribution Manager
At the opening of her exhibition “Devotions” in Kohl Gallery on Friday evening, interdisciplinary artist Sobia Ahmad said that she processes many of her experiences and the experiences of those around her through making art.
Born in Pakistan, Ahmad has lived in the United States since she was 14. She holds an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, a B.S. in Community Health and a B.A in Studio Art both from the University of Maryland College Park. Her work has been reviewed by many major publications and exhibited internationally.
According to her website, Ahmad’s work “explores the transcendental power of everyday experiences, objects, and rituals through film, photography, and social practice,” drawing on “non-western intellectual and spiritual lexicons” with a focus on “traditions of devotional poetry and oral storytelling associated with Sufism.”
“Devotions” features work that reflects the artist’s relationship with a quaking aspen grove in Utah known as the Pando Forest through hand-processed photographs and a film. A place “both contemporary and ancient,” Ahmad said, Pando is 16 to 80,000 years old and the largest living organism on the planet
“The most exciting and remarkable thing about Pando is that what appears to be 47,000 individual trees spread across 106 acres is one tree connected by a single, massive root system,” Ahmad said.
One piece in Ahmad’s exhibit, titled “The Breath Within the Breath,” is a continuous image captured on a roll of 35mm on the 2023 Autumn Equinox. The title is a verse from the fifteenth-century Indian mystic poet Kabir that relates to the closeness of the Divine. Ahmad compares the circular motion she completed in taking the picture to the devotional circular dances of Sufi dervishes.
She pointed out the full moon on Friday evening as she described capturing the image.
“I was standing in a clearing in the Pando Forest, and I held the camera to my chest and completed a circle with my body as I advanced the film,” Ahmad said. “So the movement of the body and my breath captured this really blurry image that also captured the full moon.”
Ahmad created the film “One Big Eye” in collaboration with filmmaker and anthropologist Dr. Benny Shaffer. The black-and-white film footage was processed over the kitchen sink using an environmentally friendly household recipe that includes coffee, lemon juice, and washing soda.
At the artist talk prior to the opening of the exhibit, Ahmad shared a slideshow with a chronological description of many of her projects since graduating with her degree in studio arts.
Influenced by the social, political, and cultural environments she experienced growing up in Pakistan, Ahmad said that she “was making work that was considered social practice before [she] knew what social practice was.”
One of the works that Ahmad described was “Small Identities,” in which she uses arabesque tiles with passport ID photos of Muslim immigrants alongside blank tiles to display the psychological impact of the 2017 Muslim travel ban.
In a later work “wherever you are is called Here” (2019), Ahmad said she considers “all the ways that borders play a role in our lives.” She explained that the symbolic “anti-flags” or “non-flags” used in the piece think about the impacts of migration and exile, the meaning of home in relation to geographical borders, and the importance of ancestral oral histories through the artist’s grandmother.
“I really like to activate my work with performances, poetry, storytelling, or inviting others to …engage with the work that’s outside of just an art-object, art-installation context,” Ahmad said.
Director and Curator of the Kohl Gallery Robert Blackson said that one of the major focuses of “Devotions” is Ahmad’s deliberate representation of the relationships between one’s internal and external existence.
“I really do think the theme of this show is about recognizing yourself amongst others,” Blackson said. “That there’s a reciprocity between what you want to see around you and what of that you want to reflect in yourself so that the two can continue to grow.”
Recognizing Ahmad’s commitment to the reflective aspect of her art, Blackson said that Ahmad mindfully considers both the subject of her work and the medium for its creation.
“[Ahmad] understands that to live this Oneness of us with the earth, you can’t just develop that photograph or that film using the destructive chemical processes that are going to harm the very thing that you want to look at.”
The exhibit also demonstrates a meaningful intersection between art and the environment, Blackson said, which viewers can learn about when visiting the Gallery.
“I think that this show is a beautiful teaching tool because if you understand how these images were made [and] why these particular subjects were chosen…you’re learning about that level of environmental science combined with a creative resilience,” Blackson said.
As an art history and Hispanic studies double major with a concentration in studio art, junior Rebekah McCreary shared the way that the artist talk piqued both her academic and artistic interest in Ahmad’s work.
“[Ahmad] was talking about community participation and mysticism and oral history, and…generational history and immigration,” McCreary said. “And those are things that, personally, I as an artist am really interested in, and I connect a lot with, and so I’m really excited to see kind of how she interacts with these concepts.”
Senior Shannon Smith, an art history major and medieval and early modern studies minor who has been involved with the Kohl Gallery throughout her time at the College, said she was present for the installation of “Devotions.”
Smith said she enjoyed seeing how Ahmad “worked with the space and seeing all of her designs of what she wanted.”
In addition to introducing Ahmad at the artist talk, Smith moderated the Q & A portion at the end of the event. Smith was impressed by Ahmad’s commitment to her work.
“She’s very passionate about what she does,” Smith said.
Smith said that one of the displays she finds most exciting in the exhibit is “One Big Eye,” as she had “never seen a video format in the Gallery.”
Center for Environment and Society MuSE Coordinator and former interim director of Kohl Gallery Jason Patterson said he led the installation of “Devotions.”
Patterson said that he constructed the low wooden table based on Ahmad’s design for displaying “The Breath Within the Breath,” around which are circular cushions on either side for viewers to sit and observe the image.
“[Ahmad’s] work is so good,” Patterson said. “I’m really happy that it’s here.”
“Devotions” will be on display in the Kohl Gallery until December 15, 2024. The Kohl Galley is located in the Gibson Center for the Arts at Washington College, and it is accessible and open to the public from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday, and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, as well as by appointment.