Ahmed's surreal textile sculptures incorporate and reinterpret traditional carpet-weaving techniques from his native country into hyper-contemporary forms. His textile sculptures seem to slip, slide, zoom-in, fade-out, grow, move, and change. Traditional textile materials like wool and colored pigments are transformed with an eye toward the present and future, using techniques of animation, pixilation, and distortion to develop connections between the artworks and the visual and material culture of everyday life. The three works on display at Shangri La included a traditional Azerbaijani carpet pattern that dissolves into a lush blue mass, an epic illusionist play on perspective, and an "infinite" repeated pattern inspired by Buddhist mandalas. The artworks are playful but also challenge assumptions about form, function, and the nature of craft.

Shangri La artist-in-residence, 2019
Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design
Honolulu, HI, USA

Ahmed also exhibited his works at the Honolulu Museum of Art during his residency with Shangri La in 2019. Ahmed's works "DNA" and "Epiphany" (respectively), exhibited in the Arts of the Islamic World Gallery Annex, Honolulu Museum of Art.