Mahmoud Dervaish once said "Exile is not a time and a place; exile is an experience. It's a transformation that forces you to keep on moving." Diaspo
Mahmoud Dervaish once said “Exile is not a time and a place; exile is an experience. It’s a transformation that forces you to keep on moving.” Diaspora art in today’s world is a living fabric, woven with threads of memory, displacement, and reinvention. It speaks in many tongues, blending ancestral voices with contemporary rhythms, creating something overwhelmingly universal yet deeply personal. These artists, straddling borders both real and imagined, transform longing into creation, creating works that carry the weight of homes left behind while embracing the fluidity of new identities. In their hands, art becomes a bridge—between past and present, here and there—a tribute to resilience and the enduring human need to belong everywhere and nowhere.
Amna Walayat is a Cork-based Pakistani-born visual artist. She works with Backwater Artists and is a Sample-Studios and Art Nomads member. Her Art examines themes of identity, displacement, and religious symbolism associated with her dual heritage. Through her recent traveling solo show A Flight of Two Half Birds displayed at the ArtSoch Contemporary in Lahore in November, Walayat presented a series of performative self-portraits rendered through the Indo-Persian miniature painting tradition, engaging with themes of identity, estrangement, and loss. The work deals with mourning and constructing selfhood and home, reflecting on the human experience of displacement. Through her paintings, Walayat examines the duality inherent in navigating the cultural dimensions of “home” and “new home.” Her practice seeks to explore a personal search for Utopia, while simultaneously addressing the complexities and challenges of existing within liminal, in-between spaces – a limbo.
Amna Walayat’s self-portraits are deep visual narratives that personify the complexities of identity, belonging, and the emotional tensions of cultural duality. In her series of self-portraits, Walayat uses a thorough combination of traditional materials and techniques—including gouache, tea wash, pigments, lead pencils, marbling, and 22-carat gold on Wasli paper—to explore her lived experiences as an artist within the South Asian diaspora. These paintings are as much personal reflections as they are commentaries on the broader themes of diaspora and displacement.
Amna Walayat discovered the art of miniature painting as a practical medium she could pursue from her kitchen table while raising children in a small house after moving to the UK. Unable to set up a dedicated studio, she embraced this traditional art form, which allowed her to balance creativity with family life. Despite her expertise, she continues to see herself as a student of miniature painting. Walayat’s choice of medium is also deeply symbolic. Wasli paper and miniature painting techniques, rooted in South Asian artistic traditions, pay homage to her cultural heritage. The use of marbling and gold—elements associated with Mughal and Persian art—serves to further reinforce the visual connection to history. However, her application of these traditional methods in a modern context is anything but nostalgic. By juxtaposing historical aesthetics with contemporary themes, Walayat transforms the act of creating art into an exploration of identity, blurring the boundaries between past and present.
In one of her paintings; Untitled, Walayat depicts herself in profile, draped in a traditional South Asian dupatta, holding a red passport—likely symbolic of her journey. The passport in her hand can be interpreted as a symbol of both freedom and constraint. While it suggests movement and global citizenship, it also signifies the bureaucratic complexities and emotional sacrifices inherent in migration. The chameleon, on the other hand, is a powerful metaphor for assimilation and resilience, traits often demanded of those living in the diaspora.
Another painting, Conflict, plunges deeper into the psychological and emotional tensions of identity. Walayat portrays herself in a multi-layered composition, with overlapping profiles of different expressions. Each visage seems to represent a fragment of her internal dialogue, grappling with the competing expectations of tradition, modernity, self-expression, and societal norms. The text scattered across the background—words like “God,” “Save the Queen,” and script in Urdu—adds another layer of complexity, highlighting the competing cultural and linguistic influences in her life.
Self Portrait with a Needle captures a quiet moment of contemplation. The needle in her hand, composed of thread, becomes a metaphor for the act of stitching together disparate experiences, cultures, and identities.
In Daisy Cutter, Walayat employs stretched sheep skin as her canvas, invoking an archaic sense of fragility and timelessness. The narrative unfolds amidst a surreal landscape, populated by animals, fragmented architecture, and symbols of destruction. The work speaks to the fragility of utopias and the haunting omnipresence of loss.
Amna Walayat’s work situates itself firmly within the genre of diaspora art, which often seeks to address questions of belonging, displacement, and cultural hybridity. Artists from the diaspora frequently occupy liminal spaces, caught between the nostalgia for their cultural roots and the need to adapt to new environments. Walayat’s paintings articulate these tensions with precision and grace, offering a deeply personal yet universally resonant narrative.
Her work also echoes of a feminist perspective, which according to her isn’t conscious but at the same time also somewhat deliberate, as she centers her own lived experiences and uses the self-portrait as a tool for storytelling. By placing herself at the heart of her work, Walayat challenges the erasure often experienced by women in both historical and contemporary art narratives. She reclaims her agency by presenting herself not as an object but as a subject of her narrative, rich with complexity and depth.
Amna Walayat’s self-portraits are more than paintings; they are visual archives of belonging, adaptability, and resilience. Her work reminds us that identity is not static but fluid, shaped by personal experiences and cultural intersections. These paintings invite viewers to engage in introspection and empathy, bridging the gap between individual and collective experiences. For those who have ever grappled with questions of identity, culture, or belonging, Walayat’s art provides not only a mirror but also a map—a way to navigate the rich and sometimes challenging terrain of the self.
