Hello, I’m Shaheen Saliahmohamed, a transdisciplinary artist whose path interlaces fine arts, anthropology, contemporary circus, and traditional craft. My background is eclectic, moving between academic inquiry and embodied practice. I trained in circus arts at the Scuola di Circo in Torino and worked for several years with the contemporary circus company Circo de Mente in Mexico City.
Back in Mauritius and away from my circus mentors, I turned to anthropology and fine arts—studying through Sorbonne Université and Université Toulouse–Jean Jaurès. I am now pursuing a Master’s in Fine Arts at Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3.
My practice draws inspiration from Persianate and Islamicate ornamentation, storytelling, and pattern-making. I work with wood, paper, fabric, and performance, drawn to the patience of time-intensive processes such as papercutting and embroidery. For me, ornament is a language of care, love, and warmth—and in the face of chromophobic Western aesthetics, also a quiet act of resistance.
​
Navigating the shifting realities of modern life, I often find myself steeped in nostalgia, reflecting on how rituals and aesthetics are carried forward, reshaped, or silenced under colonial rule, cultural hegemony, and political pressures—yet continue to resonate through lived experience.
​
​
I am drawn to porous boundaries between art forms and to quiet gestures that hold space for transformation and embodied memory. Rooted in the syncretised context of Mauritius, my practice engages with Indian Ocean crossings and the diasporic traces of shared cultural inheritance. Beyond traditional exhibition formats, I endeavor to decentralise the way art is encountered—opening intimate spaces for immersive experiences where audiences are invited to step inside gestures of care, ornament, and memory.