Ahoo Maher | "Diary": Dastan's Basement
A solo painting exhibition of works by Ahoo Maher
Dastan’s Basement is pleased to invite you to the opening of Ahoo Maher's solo exhibition entitled “Diary” on December 18. The exhibition will be open for public viewing through December 23. This is Ahoo Maher’s first solo exhibition in Dastan’s Basement. Her work has been previously featured in one solo gallery show in Vienna, along with a number of group exhibitions and performance shows. Ahoo Maher’s interdisciplinary artistic career ranges from visual arts to performance and music.
Ahoo started working on this series in the form of a “visual diary” in November 2012 after her frustration with keeping a “written” diary. “I’ve never been good at writing, but have always wanted to keep a diary, as a documentation of my life. I started with writings, but that did not satisfy my need… so I tried to use a different way… I always did sketches and doodles, so I used these very things…”
In the beginning, Ahoo did sketches and collages as diary entries in a notebook for herself, but after presenting some of them at her university, she started a visual blog on Tumblr, “Ahoo’s Diary”. Her earlier works were influenced by news pieces and what was happening around her, but the entries became more personal over time. Her recent works which are mostly self-portraits have been inspired by the recent trend in sharing selfies in social media.
The current works have been selected from over 300 diary entries. The works were all created using material that was readily available, using the simplest techniques. The audience can browse through Ahoo’s diary, create narratives in their minds, and look through the window of the artist’s life.