Sudanese artist preserves memory in Nairobi
Waleed Mohammed uses painting and diverse materials to explore Sudan's past and present transformations.
Sudanese visual artist Waleed Mohammed is documenting the country’s collective memory through art created in his Nairobi studio. He uses painting and diverse materials to explore transformations in Sudanese lives since the April 2023 war and memories from before it.
Mohammed’s work draws inspiration from old photographs and family albums, including archives of Sudanese photographers like Rashid Mahdi and Gadalla Gubara. He reinterprets these images, transforming them into paintings that acquire new meanings relating to identity and collective memory.
His approach engages with the concept of post memory, exploring how a later generation relates to trauma it did not experience directly but which is transmitted through images and stories. Duality of colour characterises his work, with monochromatic grey bodies set against saturated fields of indigo blue, crimson red, and earthy yellow.
Why it mattersSudanese artist Waleed Mohammed is preserving collective memory through his art in Nairobi, Kenya, exploring themes of war and displacement.