GUEST ARTIST - Farah Rahman
Residency and exhibition:
Opening hours:
Thursday July 31st (opening): 17:00 - 21:00 h
In addition to the opening event on Thursday, the work-in-progress will also be on view on:
Friday, August 1 and Saturday, August 2 from 11:00 to 15:00 h
Farah Rahman is a visual artist whose research- art science based practice parallels that of an ethnobotanist. Rooted in her own family history, which traces back to Suriname and India, her work explores the complex relationships between trees, plants, people, and culture. Through multisensory installations, Rahman weaves together forgotten ancestral knowledge and current political, ecological, and spiritual questions about the entanglement of humans and the plants/trees world.
During her artist residency at SeeLab, she focuses on the limes tree in and around the garden, using them as both inspiration and material for new botanical image-making processes. Working with historical photographic techniques such as anthotypes, Rahman extracts pigments and impressions directly from plants/ vegetables collected locally or the Hague market. Her research-based approach deconstructs inherited traditions and seeks to uncover the symbolic, spiritual and medicinal roles of plants/trees across generations.
At the core of Rahman’s work lies a deep respect and admiration for medicinal plants and their role as carriers of cultural memory. A core aim of her work is to counter plant blindness, the widespread cultural tendency to overlook the vital presence and intelligence of the vegetal world. By highlighting medicinal plants as carriers of cultural memory, Rahman invites audiences to see plants and trees not merely as background decor or resources, but as sentient beings embedded in ritual, healing, and storytelling.
Her time at SeeLab forms an important chapter in her ongoing exploration of cultural plant tree knowledge and experimental eco-imaging.
About the artist:
Farah Rahman is a multidisciplinary ArtScience artist, art educator, and freelance museum guide at Kunstmuseum The Hague. She also serves as an independent advisor in the Pro Committee of Stroom The Hague. Her work has been exhibited at institutions such as CBK Zuidoost, Zone2Source Amsterdam, the Dutch Fotomuseum, Museon, WORM Rotterdam, Stroom The Hague, and the LUMC Art Gallery in Leiden University Medical Center. She has led educational workshops for organizations including Filmhuis Den Haag, Into the Great Wide Open Festival, Boijmans van Beuningen, and the Instrument Inventors Initiative. Rahman holds a BA in Audiovisual Design from the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and earned her MA in ArtScience in 2022 from the Royal Academy of Art and the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Her ArtScience research practice mirrors that of an ethnobotanist, drawing from her family roots in Suriname and India to explore cultural and spiritual relationships with plants.
Supported by: Gemeente Den Haag and See Lab
