Exhibition Details
In this poignant exhibition, Ethiopian-American photographer Yusuf Ahmed delves into the intricate dance between memory and erasure, asking: What endures, and what fades?
Inviting friends and acquaintances with immigrant identities to respond to a deceptively simple prompt—What is the object you’ve held onto the longest?—Ahmed uncovers objects imbued with meaning: scissors, a childhood diary, a delicate vase, a Russian doll. These seemingly ordinary items become powerful vessels, safeguarding stories of ancestors, distant homelands, and fractured yet enduring identities.
Inviting friends and acquaintances with immigrant identities to respond to a deceptively simple prompt—What is the object you’ve held onto the longest?—Ahmed uncovers objects imbued with meaning: scissors, a childhood diary, a delicate vase, a Russian doll. These seemingly ordinary items become powerful vessels, safeguarding stories of ancestors, distant homelands, and fractured yet enduring identities.
About the Artist
Yusuf Ahmed is an Ethiopian-American documentary filmmaker, photographer, and communications strategist based in New York City. Yusuf’s work in documentary portraiture and film examines contemporary conditions of globalization and how it impacts the construction of memory, identity, and notions of belonging.
Location
The Africa Center at Aliko Dangote Hall
1280 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029
Image: Yusuf Ahmed, Viktor and the Russian Princess Doll, 2023, courtesy of the artist