Vira Arts is located in Kabul, Afghanistan and was founded in October 2020 to introduce a new, fun art style to the Afghanistan art scene. Vira’s founder, Ahmad Fawad Sarbeland, graduated from Jawjzan University in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. He has worked and earned several experiences in different fields and decided recently to pursue a career in the arts market, but with a unique, engineering flavor to the art.
Ahmad Fawad became interested in string art as a unique way to use multiple mediums to create interesting 3D art. String art (or pin and thread art) is characterized by the arrangement of colored thread strung between pins to form geometric patterns or representational designs. Thread, wire, or string is wound around a grid of nails hammered into velvet-covered wooden boards. This organic idea to use thread and nails to form angles with string has grown from an educational tool to an art form like no other.
Ahmad Fawad wants to continue to build on that momentum that Vira has started as it has succeeded in hiring 4 artisans total and selling products in the markets in Kabul. Vira’s goal is to strengthen, develop, and promote string arts and support Afghanistan’s handcrafts. With string art as an educational tool and a way to produce art, Ahmad Fawad hopes to create jobs for the people in his community who are interested in such arts.
Vira’s goals for the future are to establish string art training centers to create jobs for enthusiasts and open an art exhibition to display Vira’s string art products. In partnering with ASEEL, Ahmad Fawad wants to share string art with a wider audience and build up a trained cadre of string art professionals in Kabul, and hopefully in Afghanistan more widely.