Sulafa Mohammed

Sulafa Mohammed (b. 1982, Dubai) is a self-taught Emirati artist who works with textile techniques typically understood as ‘crafts’; specifically, crocheting and knitting. She creates non-functional objects from a variety of materials including yarn, wire and charcoal. Sulafa’s practice draws inspiration from her immediate surroundings and encounters, giving new life to the overlooked and seemingly insignificant characteristics of her daily activities. Sulafa’s professional background is in Commerce Management, where numbers have a cold and calculative personality within the various metrics of commerce. Given the meditative mindset of crochet, it became crucial for her to recontextualize these numbers–embracing a conscious approach to recording, decoding and ‘humanizing’ these aspects of her experiences. These numbers define the parameters with which she creates her sculptures, allowing everyday chance to play a key role in determining the form of the final works. Sulafa’s work has been part of WIE Kollektiv: Where I End, Backhaus Projects; Common Imprint, Berlin Summer University; Naqd Critique Sessions; Made in Tashkeel 2023, Tashkeel, Dubai; The Institute Crits (Online), The Institute of Emerging Art. She has attended art courses in Germany and the UAE. She lives and works in Dubai, UAE.