Local artist sheds light on cultural belonging through group exhibition

Melika Hashemi is one of four Muslim artists whose work hopes to shed light on cultural belonging and social political issues.

Hashemi's contribution, Fleeing The Folio, is part of a group exhibit at TheMuseum in Kitchener called Connections and Context: Islamic Influences and Traditions.

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Melika Hashemi says this piece, Ma'jooj, is meant to get people thinking about what their new beginning will look like after overcoming their personal chaos. (Melika Hashemi )

Her work touches on the journey to belong as her work consists of taking out characters from Persian miniature paintings and placing them in current photographs she took of her surroundings in and around Kitchener and Waterloo. 

Hashemi's work consists of taking out characters from Persian miniature paintings and placing them in current photographs she took of her surroundings in and around Kitchener-Waterloo. (Melika Hashemi ) 

"I make art based on my hyphenated identity, which is based on my hyphenated experiences with so-called home," she told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo.

"It's really this limbo of longing to belong that I'm stuck in that I really try to explore in my art."