A Mini Interview with Ardo Ahmed

Ciara: Biggest Inspiration and influences?

Ardo: Firstly, my dadafranz and my bb sol!

Secondly, Maimouna Guerresi! Her installation and photography is sublime (hahah), it's the perfect amount of stillness and we love a strong conceptual artist. Her works centers around religion, mainly her upbringing in Catholicism and her converting to Islam. I identify with her work being brought up in both religions.

Thirdly, Sean Brown. He's a designer based out of Toronto and his work is very much aligned with my personal aesthetic. He designed everything from the infamous CD rug to gift wrapping tape but it's just so visually pleasing to look at and have yourself.

I guess to sum it up my biggest inspo are people who are conceptual and aesthetic, you need a bit of both.

Ciara: What are your current dreams?

Ardo: Creating generational wealth and redistributing it to BIPOCS and those in need.

Ciara: Sublime—has this feeling ever affected your work or the way you go about creating?

Ardo: As artists we are always chasing perfection, specifically how we want others to perceive our work. Honestly, it's exhausting trying to have all your work viewed as "sublime". While I was in Fine Arts school I felt as if I needed to create the next great art piece that would be archived away at a gallery for future generations to pull inspo from, this idea of leaving my own artistic legacy. Now I just create art for art's sake, I'm exploring new mediums and creating work that makes me feel good. Before I used to put so much of my identity and self worth into art and it was traumatizing. Maybe I'll dive back into my love for conceptual work one day.