Sarah-Mecca Abdourahman
About the Artist
Sarah-Mecca Abdourahman is an emerging Somali-Indian multidisciplinary artist based in Ottawa and Montreal. Her art practice involves painting and video art. Through the re-working of family photo albums, Abdourahman’s work addresses her cultural history, using her art practice to connect with her homeland from a first-generation Canadian perspective. Through this process, she explores concepts of migration, familial history, and land occupation.
Abdourahman is a graduate of Concordia University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (2020). She has previously exhibited at the Senate of Canada (2023), Ottawa City Hall (2023), Rubenstein Arts Center at Duke University (2022), Digital Art Resource Centre (2022), Gallery 101 (2022), La Maison d’Haïti (2022), Institut National Art Contemporain (2022), Ottawa Art Gallery (2021). Her work has been featured in CBC Arts Documentary Series: Exhibitionists (2020), In addition, she has designed murals for the Vanier Community Service Centre and Lansdowne & the Glebe Park (2020-2021). Abdourahman has also led creative workshops with Ottawa Art Gallery and Somerset West Community Health Centre (2021-2022). Her work is among private collections and the City of Ottawa Art Collection. Most recently, Abdourahman presented a solo exhibition entitled L’exil at MIFO gallerie d’art Eugène-Racette (2022).
Chez soi, by Sarah-Mecca Abdourahman
Chez soi
Chez soi is a continuation of Sarah-Mecca Abdourahman’s series titled L’exil, animating the concept of being chased away by "home", as defined by Warsan Shire in her poem titled Home. Shire depicts the Somali migrant and refugee experience of forcibly fleeing a native country. She personifies “home,” chasing the people away. Abdourahman further elaborates on her experience as a first-generation Canadian, defining this concept as the second chase — a result of residing in a country where diasporic communities experience discrimination and xenophobia — creating a longing to return to the homeland.
Abdourahman shares her reconnection to home, featuring a character residing in a pseudo-dystopian world referencing a multi-camera sitcom. The character attempts to escape this nightmare and finds ways to reconnect with her notion of home. The loop format accentuates a never-ending cycle toward this necessary reconnection to community, family, and country. The story is concluded as unresolved to represent endless questions of the third space (coined by Homi K. Bhabha) experienced by diasporic communities.
