Over my undergraduate years, I became interested in the contemporary discourse of multiculturalism and diaspora studies. This interest in migrant resilience emerged from the moment I left Albania and immigrated to Canada in 2010 with my family. As a first-generation Balkan Muslim immigrant womxn cognizant of the underdeveloped social policy in Canada, I sought to raise awareness about the lived experiences of hyphenated identities through artmaking. I am currently completing my BFA Honours thesis, “On Finding Home: The Role of Reimagined Urban Spaces in One’s Search for Identity and Belonging” at OCAD University. Throughout my research, I’ve come to further develop my art-activist vocabulary to reflect my diasporic experiences and at the same time highlight the social and political constructions that maintain the marginalization of the displaced, both in the context of newcomer integration and Indigenous dispossession.

In a nutshell, my works are deeply engaged with aspects of my Muslim Albanian heritage tying in history and layers of place to unfold memory through abstraction, collaging and layering of paint, steel, and other esoteric media. My material practice cannot be separated from the impressive depth of my research as I document the struggles in shaping Balkan Muslim identities across North America. I am constantly exploring the notion of ‘home’ through an intuitive process of paint application juxtaposed with the marriage of steel, plaster and latex to materialize what I have come to know as the autobiographical memory landscape. The hard, rigid steel fusing with the malleability of latex and translucency of paint references the cultural in-betweenness immigrant groups face in the process of identity building and community belonging.

Home, latex and found steel, 26 inches x 30 inches, 2020

What does it mean to aestheticize the industrial through the lens of nostalgia?

Amidst cities’ reconfigured spaces of commodification, post-industrialism and consumerism, an immigrant’s evolving relationship to memories of home contributes to the development of blended cultural identities. Drawing on similar concepts of nostalgia and remnants / ruins, I confront homeland separation through the introduction of tactile industrial materials as highlighted above. Steel is the primary building material of the communist bunkers found across Albania today. Recollections of childhood memories serve an important role in my present perception of space and community as a Balkan Muslim immigrant femme. Similarly, my use of plaster, latex, and chalk, in part inspired by Soviet brutalist architecture explores how the fictional spaces I occupy are shaping the person I am becoming. Beyond the introduction of materials, processes of welding and multilayering within my works highlight my attempt at delineating the territory between the past – in art, what lies underneath, and the future – in art, what lies at the surface. As a result, viewers end up looking at works that merge the past and the future, and now wholly exist in a present state of oscillating ambiguity. As I extend the dialogue around imagined urban spaces through architectural reconstructions, my cultural identity traces national history – Albania’s democratic transition – and continues to greatly influence my palette choices. For example, following the fall of communist dictator, Enver Hoxha, pastel paints covered Albania’s ubiquitous grey architecture to symbolize the coming of democracy.

Lagjja Ime (My Neighbourhood), acrylic paint on steel, 24 inches x 36 inches, 2019

As a Muslim immigrant womxn, I exist in the built archive of the familiar. This archive, or rather living repertoire of the archaeology of the everyday, flourishes as it is being translated through abstracted material play into multilayered conceptual works. With this said, my artistic practice fosters vulnerable dialogic exchange between myself, my works, and the viewers. As art activists, we are able to create powerful interactions that promote integration simply by producing works that to some degree can feel relatable to our audiences.

The passion I have in building creative resilient immigrant communities that are effectively addressing social issues at a grassroots level fuels the dense research I am undertaking. As a result, I have come to view my works as performative containers. Performative in the sense that my cultural memories and explorations of urban liminal spaces are intentionally replayed nonstop through the process of research, creation and public sharing, and containers because they hold and frame personal narratives in constant flux. Through visceral manipulation and critical arts interventions, I examine urban contemporary realities and the fractured cultural landscapes of immigrant femme communities who in the making of their identities are paving the way for transnational dialogue and urban imaginaries.

I hope that the art-activist processes and plays I have shared inspire and encourage Muslim immigrant femme readers to explore their nuanced cultural identities by building on traditional understandings of community through fluid placemaking arts-based practices.