Interview with Alqumit Alhamad on the 7th of May 2025.
Q1.What influences your work?
My lived experiences, war, displacement, queerness, and, quite recently, the Nordic nature.
Q2. Have you learned something new during your residency at Platform?
Yes, my time here so far has deepened my understanding of the cultural interplay between Swedish and Finnish identities. As an Arab-Swede, I find it compelling to drawbparallels between these complex narratives and my own hybrid background. Speaking Swedish in Finland and navigating Vaasa through this lens has offered an interesting perspective, one that is both familiar and foreign, and opened up new ways of thinking about cultural belonging and artistic positioning.
Q3. How does the change of environment generally influence your work?
Over the past few months, my artistic practice has begun receiving broader recognition within the Swedish contemporary art scene. While this recognition is deeply meaningful, it has also placed a great deal of pressure on me, making me feel as though I need to constantly produce more in order to live up to the awards and praise I’ve received. The residency in Vaasa has provided a necessary shift, allowing me to slow down and reconnect with my instincts. The natural surroundings and distance from institutional expectations have fostered a more intuitive and reflective process. While I am working on two projects, I am letting rest and experimentation guide my practice instead of urgency.
Q4. How is your work usually perceived by the audience?
Reception varies widely depending on context. I do not create to meet expectations, but to generate dialogue, discomfort, or connection. While I remain open to how my work is interpreted, I prioritise critical engagement and integrity over approval.
Q5. What questions or themes are you currently working with?
What does it mean to dress for survival when survival itself is aestheticized? How do visual tactics operate within systems that continue to marginalize and exclude? And what forms of power and fragility emerge when the refugee body insists on presence without explanation, insisting that relation can exist without transparency and that freedom can be claimed through opacity?
