saliqa ahmed
Textile Design BA Hons
Chelsea College of Arts UAL
Graduates: 2026
Specialisms: Textiles / Textiles - Concept
My location: London, United Kingdom
saliqa ahmed
First Name: saliqa
Last Name: ahmed
University / College: Chelsea College of Arts UAL
Course / Program: Textile Design BA Hons
Graduates: 2026
Specialisms: Textiles / Textiles - Concept
My Location: London, United Kingdom
About
Saliqa Ahmed is a textile designer currently based in London. Her practice positions textiles as a powerful and expressive medium for storytelling, through which she explores cultural, political, and personal narratives. Her relationship to making began with her grandmother, who first introduced her to textiles at a very young age. Primarily working with hand techniques, she approaches making as a continuous dialogue between inheritance and invention, informed by generational skills passed down through her family. Within her work, she aims to cultivate a deeper sensitivity to how identity is expressed through materials.
Transcend explores what it means to feel free, shaped by Saliqa's experience of navigating a dual identity and inhabiting an in-between state, where the self is continually negotiated and redefined. Within her practice, textiles hold a profound significance in relation to her faith, culture, and understanding of the body, where cloth operates as an extension of the skin, shaping both physical presence and personal meaning. The concept of freedom is frequently embodied through the symbolism of birds. Their feathers are not simply external attributes but are integrated into their identity. This symbiosis enables flight. Through flight birds embody independence and the joy of being unbound, inspiring notions of personal liberty and representing a life unrestricted. Saliqa's work exists within this space, where flight becomes an act of rising beyond limits and boundaries. Working with the power of black, she emphasises the absence of colour to create a more open and unconstrained form of expression, shifting attention towards shadow, form, and texture. Through material exploration, her work evokes fluidity and movement, positioning freedom as an empowering force of transformation and self-expression.
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