Shaima Shamsi

Artist Statement

By destabilizing familiar materials and objects, my works consider the possibilities that stem from separation: Can pulling apart lead to coming together? Can absence itself become a site for transformation? I observe narratives of separation, whether from the land or each other, as active rather than passive conditions. In doing so, I seek to reinstate agency to places and people who exist between transitory states.

My practice delves into the transformation of identities shaped by movement between cultures and geographies. I observe the tangible and emotional currencies exchanged within these spaces, unraveling how they influence individual and collective experiences. Through my work, I also address the longing and alienation felt by displaced subjects navigating systemic conformities, revealing the emotional complexities of belonging.

Materiality lies at the heart of my practice, functioning as a language that accumulates meaning to express emotional weight. By working with domestic and found objects, I amplify their inherent physical properties while preserving their ability to convey deeply personal significance. Through installations, sculptures, video, painting, and drawing, I explore the raw tensions between strict literalism and emotional fragility.

Tombstone information : 

Shaima Shamsi
Sharp Comforts (2025)
Sculpture
Steel, metal thread, needles

Geographies of Absence I,II, III, IV (2025)
Drawing
Perforated archival paper

Permutation: D, M, B, S (2025)
Sculpture
Steel

Can absence, when allowed to expand, create new ways of being present? 

Exploring the dialectical relationship between separation and absence, Sharp Comforts presents a counter-narrative of belonging, where moments of moving stillness draw attention to our deepest separations. A curtain of suspended needles — functional yet piercing, mundane yet unsettling — challenges our understanding of comfort in the absence of refuge. Each needle hangs poised with its open eye, inviting contemplation on what might pass through — whether connection, memory, or meaning can be threaded through absence itself.

The work of the needle continues through meticulous perforations on paper in Geographies of Absence, reflecting on emotional landscapes that emerge from poetry drawn from handwritten letters exchanged with my mother. These works meditate on memories of separation, where rupture becomes a negotiation with the present and a potential for transformation. In Permutations, a line of mutated needle forms becomes a site for transformation in shape, function, and perception. Here, separation is not a passive state, but an active force that occupies space and stretches across time, generating physical and psychological transformations through movement.