Gallery open Wednesday-Saturday, 1-4pm
During her residency at Everybody Arts, Rahela Khan will create a collection of hand-built clay pieces that draw on traditional Islamic art and South Asian textile motifs to reflect on cultural heritage, migration, and resilience.
These are displayed alongside selected images and research materials. Rahela’s research explores themes of belonging, memory, and identity (particularly within diasporic and faith-based communities) through socially engaged methods and materials-led processes.
Across the residency, Rahela will be reflecting on and documenting her making process as part of her ongoing action research. Photography will be used not just to record but to critically engage with material, space and audience interaction to highlight the intersection of visual storytelling and community-rooted practice.
The residency acts as both as a reflective space and as an invitation to consider themes of identity, representation, and cultural memory.
About the Artist
Rahela Khan is a UK-based visual artist and practice-based researcher of Bengali heritage. Her interdisciplinary work explores identity, faith and belonging through a socially engaged and spiritually grounded art practice. She works with ceramics, textiles, photography, and printmaking, creating contemporary pieces that draw on Islamic visual traditions and personal memory.
Rahela's recent work focuses on the representation of Muslim women in the arts, particularly those who wear the hijab. Her practice is shaped by research into diaspora communities, emotional connection, and cultural heritage. She creates non-figurative artwork that reflects Islamic values while exploring themes of transformation, distance, and intimacy. Colour, pattern and architectural elements (such as doors and arches) feature regularly in her work. These symbolise access, restriction, and identity.
She has developed a growing body of research-led artwork, including ceramic installations, print-based storytelling, and documentary photography. Her work often responds to place and space, particularly sites of worship and community gathering. One current area of focus is Rochdale’s mosque architecture, shaped by reflections on faith during the pandemic and themes of isolation and resilience.
Rahela is also deeply involved in community arts and education. She has delivered workshops with women’s groups, schools, and cultural organisations, and often uses art to support conversations around identity, migration, and visibility. Her work blends critical research with accessible, hands-on creativity.
Through her evolving practice, Rahela seeks to create inclusive spaces that reflect the experiences of under-represented communities. She aims to make artwork that is both visually rich and meaningful, opening up new ways to engage with culture, spirituality, and collective memory.
Photograph © Rahela Khan