L’amour à profusion, exhibited at le Centre culturel Georges-Vanier in Montreal, is a series of paintings and handmade domestic objects exploring themes of place and belonging. This exhibition continues my exploration of a limited, vibrant palette characterized by cobalt, ultramarine blue, dioxazine violet, magenta, fuchsia and ecru. Oscillating between miniature and large-scale worlds, my work oscillates between miniature and large-scale worlds, illustrating how reminiscence and the passage of time accumulate to create histories. Born in Karachi to a Pakistani father and a Chilean mother, I straddle two different cultures and religions while living in a third. My work is an exploration of finding where I belong. I pay tribute to my Pakistani heritage by fusing elements of the country’s material culture with personal imagery in my visual vocabulary. As a mixed-race, interfaith artist, my hybrid identity is manifested in my work through the vibrant colour palette, patterns, and themes I use to create my worlds. My nuanced relationship to this identity is nostalgic, holding on to a past as memories of it recede. These memories are expressed in reconstructed repetitive elements, domestic objects, and flora interpreted in different lights on different days. My chosen colour palette is associated with remembering and misremembering, becoming the conduit through which I connect with my identity.
I would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts and the City of St. John’s for their support. Show documentation is by Clara Lacasse, with supplemental photography by me.
©2025, Shazia Ahmad, all rights reserved
Shazia Ahmad 