Home Making asks how we make home in different places, and how that knowledge is carried and shared, from our rooms to our cities, across borders, and through generations. The project explores how making, play, learning, and cooperation can become tools for belonging, purpose, and rest, particularly in times of change or uncertainty.

Commissioned by Arts Catalyst and presented at Exchange Place in Sheffield's Castlegate, the exhibition began with Housewarming: a series of workshops designed in collaboration with Sofia Niazi, developed in conversation with a group of women connected to the neighbouring Andalus Community Centre. Some had recently arrived in the UK; others had long been part of the community. In time, they came together and named themselves Rajo, the Somali word for hope.

The workshops produced more than objects. They created a space where gathering, talking, and making together became a form of collective homemaking: not through 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 Niazi. A series of ceramic tile works by Sahra Hersi, that draw on the symbols of openness, collaboration, and solidarity explored in the workshops. Nearby sit plates painted by the women, pieces holding memories, motifs, and fragments of places lived and imagined, shared in the process of getting to know one another.

The exhibition design was developed by Sahra Hersi, including the central gathering table and shelving unit shown in the installation. Conceived as a space for gathering as much as for display, the design invites visitors to sit, look, and linger.

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

Exhibition Dates: 13 Setember 2025 – 1 November 2025