Nazarinne Ahmed
the muscle memory it takes to keep you close

In The House My Mother Built is a meditation on my relationship with my mother, explored through objects, materials, and memory. In this combination of found objects, printmaking, textiles, and casting, I contemplate inheritance and intergenerational trauma.

Like many who have immigrated to this country, my mother left behind a life and dreams of her own, not only in search of something better but out of duty to her family. I hold deep gratitude for her sacrifices, but also frustration, guilt, and shame for the ways we are often unable to truly see and understand one another, and for the life I am able to live because of what my parents gave up. This body of work is my way of honoring what was given, while grappling with what was lost or left behind.

I often think of a line in Stephanie Foo’s What My Bones Know: “Obfuscation is my inheritance.” This idea that what is passed down is not always clear, sometimes hidden or tangled, echoes throughout this work. There are things between us that were never said, histories and emotions folded into silence. These pieces attempt to make some of that tangible, to name what lies beneath it all.

This work is not concerned with closure or dramatics, but with attention and care. It’s about seeing, remembering, and repairing. It’s about holding complexity and moving towards empathy, towards grace, and towards a more honest reckoning between generations.

— Nazarinne Ahmed

Documentation by Anna Powell Denton