Home Isn't One Place: A textile tribute to the Afghan diaspora

Abstract

the afghanborn artist Hangama Amiri’s vivid, painterly tapestries explore notions of gender, community, and the essence of home. In her work, the most quotidian places and objects—a nail salon, a vanity, a kitchen table—become sites of cultural remembrance and fellowship among women. Amiri, whose family fled Talibanruled Kabul in 1996 and who now lives in the United States, says her work explores the nature of memory after migration and reflects her wish “to continuously paint the untold stories of Afghan women.” A painter by training, Amiri quilts together vibrant fabrics into largescale, often wallsized, pieces. She sources many of her textiles from the Afghaniowned shop A. K. Fabric in New York City’s Garment District and collects others on her travels and from her friends. According to Amiri, the variety of these fabrics—and the complexity of their origins—“resonates with how I think about my identity as a fragmented body or geography that connects me to a world of inbetweenness.”