Zaira Shariff, born in Hyderabad, India is currently studying Drawing and Painting at OCADU.
She is an aspiring artist whose majority of her art centres around her life and frequently features people around her to explore and understand the theme identity.
She is an aspiring artist whose majority of her art centres around her life and frequently features people around her to explore and understand the theme identity.
Family
Painting, 6 ft high, 2026
For international students, in our highest and lowest moments in the foreign land, we often find ourselves saying, “I miss home” or “I want to go back.” But what we long for is not always a physical place. We usually yearn for the memories. For the moments we shared with loved ones, the routines that once felt ordinary, and the versions of ourselves that existed within those memories.
Even as we create new memories in a foreign land, we unconsciously measure them against those from our past. The present is constantly in conversation with what came before.
Home can take many forms. It can be a favourite garden bench at school, a family recipe passed down through generations, or a quiet act of care such as having your hair oiled by a loved one. These seemingly small moments become anchors that connect us across distance and time.
Through this painting, I explore the nostalgia that international students carry with them. The work reflects a memory, a feeling, or a fragment of home that continues to exist alongside the present. While these memories can be bittersweet, they also offer comfort and resilience. They remind us where we come from and give us the strength to keep moving forward while carrying the past with us.