Rand Aljundi is a Syrian architect and a self-taught artist interested in reflecting human experience throughout artistic lines, shapes and colours. Her work deals with how a Syrian immigrant woman experiences life in the UK, trying to make sense of her evolving identity – the amalgamation and a re-creation of two cultural contexts. This constantly raises new existential questions and challenges and fuels survivor’s guilt while watching the Syrian conflict from a distance. Rand’s technique is inspired by the fast freehand drawings by which architects convey their ideas of space creation. It almost feels the hand is quicker than the thought.
A uniform, to anonymise.
Celebrate your creation.
Feel no guilt.
“Thank you very much for getting me involved in such a project and supporting us through it. It has been an eye-opening experience, made me connect with my personal stories as well as with other women's stories which mean a lot to me and already inspired me to be creative and reflect that in my work. Thank you Mei Yuk, Mahboobeh, Kani and Gloria for every response and reflection you made. It touched me in so many ways and I will be always inspired and empowered by your experiences.
I really want to take this further and try and reach out for more Syrian women who live in the UK and comes from different backgrounds.... And maybe try to reflect on their stories and incorporate that in my art work because I feel that it is very important to tell their stories as well....
So this will be my next step.”
[Rand Aljundi, 2020]