Q&A with artist Sarah-Mecca Abdourahman
Sarah-Mecca Abdourahman is a young Ottawa-based artist. Her work is deeply personal, exploring themes of childhood, nostalgia, and the diasporic experience. She explores these themes in her current exhibition, Memories We Carry, Stories We Heal at the Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery from March 27 to May 3, 2025. Two second-year Visual Arts students, Tristan Boisvert-Larouche and Olivia MacIntosh had the opportunity to ask the artist a few questions.
O.M. I noticed that you used found objects in your art practice, why is it important for you to use these objects? Are they found by chance or do you carefully seek them out?
S-M.A. The reasoning for my use of found objects has come for a variety of reasons, the first reason was a practical one. I was participating in my first residency abroad, and was in Germany for three months and I had to consider the logistics of shipping my works back home. I knew I couldn’t work on large, stretched canvases, and so, I began painting on unstretched canvas and thinking of presenting it as is. But I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the idea and this is in part what led me to my first use of a found object; that is when I painted on the blankets. The story also involves a short trip I took to London after a month into my Germany residency. I went to the Tate Modern for the first time and encountered Michael Armitage’s The Promised Land.聽 I was just in awe of his painting; I observed it for over 30 minutes, I wanted to go see another artwork, but I just kept coming back to this one painting. What really struck me about the painting was the surface material that it was painted on; Armitage was painting on the lubugo cloth, which is made from a Kenyan tree bark.聽 Armitage is a Kenyan-British painter, who by painting on this bark cloth, directly referenced East Africa, which is the subject of a lot of his paintings. I knew that I wanted to find my own painting surface material that could do the same.聽 I found that painting on the found blankets related to the topics I was exploring. When I came back to Germany, I would just go to thrift stores and find little child size blankets as that seemed like the most obvious answer for me. The first blanket I painted on had little star patterns and symbols all over it, and so using found objects really began from there.聽 As I’ve been developing my work conceptually, I realized how these used blankets related to the themes I was exploring of memory and history. They have their own histories attached to them, they’re not clean, they鈥檙e dusty, some of them even have stains. Wanting to further explore nostalgia, I began incorporating found objects that belonged to me. Using my own old webkins toys, little stuffed animals, charms, diary keys, little things like that.聽 Using objects that I’ve been holding on to since early childhood and making use of this other layer of meaning to emphasize the concept of memory… Not only through painting, but by glueing and stitching these pieces of memory. So that’s how the found objects found their way into my practice.
T.B.L. Many of the objects you use in your work hold sentimental value, like the TV/VCR, what motivates you to use objects with a direct connection to your past, and how does it feel to alter these objects, sometimes permanently, as part of your artistic process?
S-M.A. I鈥檝e been trying to listen more to my intuition and embrace an intuitive art-making process where I want every mark to be intentional. I think in doing this, I have also been paying attention to what brings me the most joy. Instead of trying to think and choose logically, I focus on listening to my intuition. For example, a lot of what I鈥檓 exploring is about nostalgia, and my early 2000s upbringing; for Chez soi (2025) my old television just felt obvious. I鈥檝e had this television since childhood, and for years it鈥檚 just been sitting in the corner of my room. Once in a while, I would play Harry Potter鈥檚 Prisoner of Azkaban on it. I think those are just moments that would just naturally bring me joy, so it felt obvious to include it in my work. In terms of altering my personal items, I think sometimes it can be something that I struggle with. I鈥檓 not sure if I just want to just leave it as it is, kept in my closet in a little box, or to include it in my pieces and embellish them with paint or stickers. These days I try not to alter the objects too much. While I will do whatever feels most natural, I also want the piece to exist on its own, to be its own authentic form of mark making. I want them to look worn out, but I don鈥檛 necessarily want them to look painted or transformed.
O.M. I also noticed some of the works featured price tags, what do these represent or mean for you?
S-M.A. For a variety of reasons, I think some of the price tags add further context and reference to what the item is. I think that at first glance, because of the many heavy layers of gesso and oil paint, you can’t always tell that there are these other materials. In one of my paintings (Protection for the Sleeper and the Departed) I was referencing a traditional (East African) headrest (Boni), and I had these Value Village tags that said 鈥渂ed and bath鈥�. This adds an association for the viewer to be able to better understand what the object is. I think I include these types of details to help contextualize the work. Recently I have been wanting to embrace and show the creative processes I work with, like referencing the Photoshop transparent grid or the lasso-tool, because my process involves working with photographs, photo-collage and Photoshop. I think in this body of work, it’s with the price tags that I am trying to show the process of creation, and being transparent about it, wanting to reference the sourcing process. I mean just the other day I was on a video call with Rhonda, and I answered in Value village as I was shopping for materials. While I鈥檓 trying to both connect to memory and reference memory, I’m also creating my own, new memories. A lot of these blankets are not my own, they’re other peoples鈥� it’s like a pseudo memory.
T.B.L. There is a definite influence of the domestic sphere in your practice which can be felt through the pieces themselves but also through the curatorial decisions made for this exhibition, such as separating the space into “rooms” (bedroom, living room, bathroom) as well as including the string outlines of domestic objects; what motivated you to make these curatorial decisions? Would you say the domestic sphere is an important part of your art making?
S-M.A. Yes, I think it felt most obvious for me in this series because I鈥檓 directly referencing my relationship to home and my parents鈥� homelands. When we think of home, we often think of a house; this is also how I think about it, especially when thinking about the different houses that I鈥檝e lived in. I also make associations with the furniture that I grew up with, which included a lot of IKEA furniture in primary colours. A lot of these homes that I grew up in altered the way I think about colour in my work. I鈥檓 just attracted to blues and yellows. I think that because a lot of my pieces are adapted from family photos, and a lot of them were taken indoors in these domestic spaces, referencing the background seen in these family photos felt most natural. Because I was painting on blankets as well, referring to the bedroom, I thought I could expand beyond the bedroom to the rest of the home by adding these string outlines. It also adds further context to the works as well, such as the sink below the mirror piece, Mourning Thoughts (2025).
O.M. Why was it important for you to represent the feeling of nostalgia in your exhibition?聽
S-M.A. Originally when I was working in this series, I wasn’t thinking of nostalgia, but it came naturally in the process. I was thinking a lot about memory and its complexities and wanting to explore haunting versus healing themes, how to elicit the bittersweet in the works. As I was developing these pieces, I think nostalgia made sense; I think I heard someone say that nostalgia is essentially a combination of happy and sad. These mixed feelings were a perfect reflection of what I was already creating. I think throughout the process, nostalgia happened as I was choosing and working with these found objects. The moment I started using my own objects this added further nostalgia.聽 When I used a Webkinz form my childhood, I began to cherish the painting so much more, so it was really a natural progression towards nostalgia.
T.B.L. Another important influence is Warsan Shire’s poem “Home.” How did you come across it?
S-M. A. The way I come across a lot of the texts I reference is truly just by Googling keywords, like 鈥淪omali poet鈥� or things like that. I first came across Warsan Shire鈥檚 poem a few years ago while taking part in a collaborative mural project with my friend Laurena Fin茅us, at the Ottawa Art Gallery (Carved Reflections) where we originally referenced one of her poems about having to flee your native country. I was interested in investigating my parents鈥� relationship to their homelands and how I could consider my own perspective of home. I also think that it was the first time I had found a piece of writing that resonated with me so much, and it was the first Somali poet I had encountered. Since learning about her writing just a few years ago, her words just keep reappearing in my work, and I鈥檝e been trying to embrace that. I think to myself, 鈥渨hy am I so intrigued about this?鈥� And it鈥檚 because this investigation of home and having to flee home, hearing these stories of why my parents and our families came to Canada, has been such a constant theme in my upbringing.
T.B.L. Would you consider literature and other cultural content an important part of your artistic process?聽
S-M. A. Yes, absolutely. I鈥檇 say finding critical theory to anchor or inspire my artworks is really important; not everything I do and make comes entirely from my own ideas. I don鈥檛 have the background to be able to come up with my own critical theories. So, finding writers who are directly talking about the concepts that I want to explore, who have the appropriate words to address them, can help make my work more accessible. These influences can create other ways for people to connect with what I am doing. If I鈥檓 directly referencing specific pieces of writing, I can invite other viewers to investigate them too.
T.B.L. Your work also draws from Christina Sharpe’s concept of “wake work,” how important would consider art to be as a tool for healing, especially for diasporic communities in Canada?聽
S-M. A. I think art is a really helpful tool for healing, especially from the perspective of the artist. I think for the artist, it can be very therapeutic to be able to investigate their past, their traumas. For example, when I began working on the collaborative mural with Laurena Fin茅us, we each did our own childhood self-portraits, we did these really deconstructed childhood self-portraits: connecting my hand from one image and the eye from another image. Doing so, I think we both learned how therapeutic creating art could be. Personally, it allowed me to see this entire new image of myself and allowed me to look back at my childhood self through a lens of empathy, I think truly, for the first time. For someone like myself, who can be very self-critical, it allowed me to see my past self as just a child, just as a girl. I think making that self-portrait really affected my current body of work, because now I鈥檓 often creating from this perspective of wanting to have empathy for my past self and for my inner child. I think in many ways it can be most healing for the artist themselves, and I think as a result other viewers can find healing through experience and through relating to those topics.
O.M. Did you find that in the process of making these artworks you found a connection to your parents鈥� homeland?聽
S-M.A. That’s a good question, it’s hard to say. In reality, I ended up thinking about the disconnect with my parents鈥� homelands because as much as I want to find more connection, I think in the end there is still such a wall there. I mean, I don’t speak my parents鈥� language, so I can’t understand texts or videos. Sometimes it feels like a game of telephone, like going through my dad or my aunt to ask questions about history and then going through archives and reading texts that risk being either censored or written from the Western perspective, so through a more biased lens. I’m trying to investigate and connect through all these different ways/means. I don’t think I have found that further connection just yet, I think it’s an ongoing, lifelong journey.
Additional/spontaneous questions
O.M. You use so many techniques and materials, including painting and sculpture, and you sometimes combine them. Which one’s your favorite?
S-M.A. I think I feel like I’m the type to get bored easily and just want to go on to the next thing.聽 Right now, I’m really enjoying the sculptures – I wouldn’t say the building process itself, but once it’s all finalized and just being able to paint on them. That has been the most intuitive process for me, not having to rely on any references or images, and just being able to paint automatically and directly. I think that was a magical discovery in and of itself. I can really get into a hypnotic state while painting the sculptures.聽 So right now, that’s my favorite.
O.M. For the (I Show Not Your Face but Your Heart’s Desire and Soul of the Departed) I understand there are two different works and I was wondering what made you want to install them together? I really like how it reads as one piece.
S-M.A. I think in terms of installation I don’t see one existing without the other.聽 What really inspired me to create this was another mirror piece I made. It was made from an arched mirror as well, where I had kind of like embraced the blanket wrinkles and I knew I wanted to explore these ideas further. Because so many of my other paintings were from my own perspective, about myself connecting with family members or departed relatives, I wanted to think about it in reverse: what does it look like when these like ancestral figures or departed figures are connecting with living family members?聽 In terms of nostalgia, I was thinking of pop culture references that are sentimental to me personally. The mirror in this installation references the mirror in Harry Potter, which isn’t necessarily significant to the work, but I think it can be helpful to understand the significance of the mirror.聽 Essentially the original title is the mirror of erised, and it’s when a character is standing in front of this mirror and their hearts deepest desires show up in the mirror. I have this memory of I think it was the first Harry Potter movie, and Harry Potter is standing in front of the mirror and he sees his parents (that have passed away) standing behind him. And so that really informed the piece.聽 Having like this ancestral figure sitting down and seeing these living family members in the reflection as well. I鈥檇 also been thinking about the timelessness of the ancestor or the role of the ancestor, because in painting these ancestral figures, or even casting them, I was referencing my own body. Considering myself as the ancestor and what that could look like in the future, or ourselves, all of us, as future ancestors.
G.B. One comment that was consistent when I chatted with students after the vernissage was that they appreciated the mixed media aspect of your work, among other things. It’s interesting that the students seem to be compelled by this combination of mediums, and maybe that comes from that intuitive place that you’re talking about as well.
S-M.A. I think so. Also, just wanting to create what brings me most joy and I think I’ve learned to listen to my most like crazy thoughts and I think those bring the strongest pieces. I guess I could talk about another piece of writing that kind of gave me the green light to get into mixed media. I had been exploring mixed media in undergrad and college, but I had put a hold on it for a few years. When I was starting my residency journeys, I found this text/essay by Leigh Raiford called Photography and the Practices of Critical Black Memory. I was interested in this text because I wanted to investigate the role of photography in relation to memory, because those are themes that I’ve been exploring. All my works reference family archives and Raiford talks about it in reference to lynching photographs and essentially, she says, that the photograph is not an authentic mode of documentation, it鈥檚 not a mirror to reality.聽 She uses these photographs as an example of how photography alone does not speak for itself; and that it’s rather the artist that can create authentic modes of documentation through intertextual compositional strategies. Text, Collage, abstraction, and multimedia works: all these different mediums could create different context cues to create your own authentic mode of reality. This really inspired me to go full on and gave me a reason to use mixed media to create my authentic modes of reality. It’s a great essay that I’d suggest reading.
Gwen – Any words of wisdom for the soon-to-graduate Visual Art students?聽
S-M.A. When I was getting out of school, I saw all these artists that I looked up to who sometimes were my age or in their early 20s and, sometimes at least, I had this vision that I had to also be a successful young artist and had to achieve all of these things. I think I finally released that pressure and realized that time is so valuable in this career; I don鈥檛 want to rush it. I told myself: 鈥淚’ll try this full time for like 10 years and see where this goes.鈥� I’d love to do this until I鈥檓 older but I am also releasing that pressure to achieve my most ambitious goals while I鈥檓 young.聽 I learned about so many other artists that achieved success later in their career like Katherine Bradford or Kerry James Marshall and I realized that this career is not linear at all.聽 You might have some years that are super successful back-to-back, and then some slow years, and then you’re just like, 鈥渨hat the heck?鈥� I think that if you feel like art is truly the career path for you, then you stick with it.聽The slow moments, or the harder moments, will teach you lessons. I feel that at the end of the day, it’s like a mental game, especially when you’re looking into residencies or grant proposals, rejection is such an inevitable thing, and it has nothing to do with the quality of your work at all. It’s just sometimes not the right moment. So, you must keep your head up no matter what happens. You can have your low moments, but you must stay positive and keep going. No one will care about your work as much as you do, so it鈥檚 important to not rely on other people’s validation, but to really just create for yourself.
Photo by Sylvia Trotter Ewens.聽
