^{Housewarming’ Lino Printing Workshop (2025), Sahra Hersi. Image Credit: Ella Barrett}

An exhibition by artists Sahra Hersi and Sofia Niazi, with Rajo
_{Commissioned by: Arts Catalyst}
_{How do we actively make home in different places? How is this knowledge carried and shared, from our homes to our cities, across borders and through generations?

For me, Home Making is a way of exploring how making, play, learning, and cooperation can become tools for belonging, purpose, and even rest, especially in times of change and uncertainty.

Commissioned by Arts Catalyst, the exhibition began with Housewarming, a series of workshops I designed together with Sofia Niazi, in conversation with a group of women connected to Andalus Community Centre. Some had recently arrived in the UK, others had been part of the community for years. In time, they came together and named themselves Rajo, the Somali word for “Hope.”

Those workshops created more than objects. They created a space. A space where gathering, talking, and making together became its own form of collective home making, not by bricks and mortar, but through gestures of warmth, kinship, and creativity.

The exhibition brings these processes into view. On display are handmade doormats crafted by the Rajo group, alongside a large-scale textile by Sofia inspired by her mother’s garden. My own ceramic tile work reflects the symbols of openness, collaboration, and solidarity we explored together. Around it sit plates and prints that hold the group’s memories and motifs fragments of places lived and imagined, shared in the process of getting to know one another.

Home Making also acknowledges the essential work of organisations like Andalus Community Centre, whose support, friendship, and solidarity create the foundations of home for so many.}