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Art and Design Now, VCUarts Qatar’s year-end show, at M7 from May 5th
BFA+MFA Thesis 2023-3
BFA+MFA 2023 is an online showcase of innovative and inspiring art and design that is featuring the next generation of gifted creative thinkers who are demonstrating the power of possibility of contemporary creative art and design in Qatar and the region.
The graduates are empowered with the skills and abilities that will contribute to Qatar’s entrepreneurial, cultural and economic strengthening, and support Qatar National Vision 2030’s aim to establish a lasting knowledge-based economy.
Ayah Elnour
The Living Legends of Sholoukhشلوخ الأساطير : Facial Scarification in Sudan
MFA in Design
Sholoukh—ritual face scarring—is a dying art form in Sudan. Used to distinguish members of one tribe from another, sholoukh reflects the tribal pride of an individual. In the past, sholoukh was seen as important as having a passport for a tribe member, however, it was not always applied by choice. Using just a razor blade, the wisest, most senior tribal elder would scar the face of a child, initiating them into the tribe for life.
As this tribal art form fades away, the dwindling sholoukh-bearers have become living legends in Sudan. To honor them, I create a collage of images of these beautifully scarred individuals. To celebrate sholoukh and its symbols while giving choice back to the individual, I create a set of facial tools that allow someone to experience the beauty of sholoukh either temporarily or permanently, preserving this Sudanese cultural treasure and reviving it for future generations, celebrating the diversity that Sudan represents.
Ayah Elnour MFA in Design
Gabrielle Tesfaye
Frewayni’s Garden: Preserving Tigrayan Culture in a Period of Ethnocide
MFA in Design
The recent and ongoing genocidal war in Tigray, Ethiopia, has witnessed the looting and destruction of countless historical religious sites, ancient manuscripts, and artifacts, leaving Tigray’s remaining cultural heritage extremely vulnerable. Such cultural loss erases a shared understanding across generations, robbing them of their history and identity. My work seeks to safeguard Tigray’s cultural heritage and collective memory, informed by literature on cultural preservation efforts in post-war societies, and a series of interviews with Tigrayans in the diaspora and in Ethiopia.
Coffee is ceremonious in the Tigrayan household, representing a time of togetherness and intergenerational cultural exchange. This is embodied in my work in a series of distinct jebenas, traditional Tigrayan clay coffee pots, featuring near-field communication (NFC) technology—the same technology that enables wireless card payments. The NFC chip in the jebenas links to Frewayni’s Garden, an interactive online archive of Tigrayan culture. Each unique jebena’s form represents a different time, place, or piece of history, directing viewers to its specific story in the garden via the NFC interface. Frewayni’s Garden is inspired by the community gardens Tigrayan refugees have created in Sudan since being displaced by the war, poetically symbolizing new life, beauty, and healing after pain. In this way, I illustrate how cultural heritage can be preserved, and passed down using the latest technology within traditional Tigrayan objects.
Gabrielle Tesfaye
Sidra Sohail
Refashioning Style from the Outside-In: A Pakistani Diasporic Response
MFA in Design
Pakistan’s traditionalists and modernists hold opposing political, religious, social and nationalist views creating a constant tension within the culture set against a broad diasporic backdrop. Within the country, this tension creates a local fashion industry with two extremes, one side reflecting traditional influences and the other reflecting globalizing modernist trends.
Informed by my own diasporic perspective, I offer a third space that is neither completely traditional nor entirely modern. Methodologically, I address this tension in several steps. First, I analyze the craft and context of traditional Pakistani men’s clothing. Next, I incorporate traditional construction techniques into the making of garments that reflect aspects of tradition and globalization, using materials sourced from across the world. Finally, in a series of five looks, blending several influences including Persian, North Indian, Afghan, Colonial, and Neo-Colonial styles, I generate hybridized garments that offer an alternative perspective, where traditional elements and the global vocabulary of fashion co-exist dynamically and harmoniously.
Sidra Sohail
Afreena Niaz
TYPE NRITYA
Graphic Design
With a particular emphasis on conventional Indian dance styles, Type Nritya translates hand movements used in dancing into Hindi inspired typography. It demonstrates the integration and similarities between dance and design and how one form may be transformed into the other. My Indian background, with love for both forms, is what sparked this creative fusion through the patience and trust in the process, communication of an idea and embracing uniqueness. By translating dance with a focus on typography, I push boundaries of what design and dance in India signify, while also giving Indian dance forms a new form.
Afreena Niaz