Kitcherner-Waterloo Art Gallery features recent gift of art: "The Oblivion Seekers"

I am pleased to share that the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (KWAG) is exhibiting a gift of art that I made in 2020 of my mother Jamelie Hassan's art work: The Oblivion Seekers. This mixed media work is on exhibit from January 28, 2022 until May 29, 2022.  There will be a curator’s tour Saturday February 26, 2022 at 1:00 PM in an exhibition titled "At the Far Edge of Worlds", curated by Žana Kozomora.  Please see the KWAG post here.

Here is the background on the work from the KWAG site: "Working across a variety of media and often addressing history’s marginalized chapters, Jamelie Hassan’s career since the early 1970s can be characterized by its close examination of cultural customs. The Oblivion Seekers assembles found and created components that situate identity somewhere between the often-simplified binaries of ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern.’ Within this shifting space, Hassan interrogates colonial archives to highlight joy and perseverance in activist gestures.

The Oblivion Seekers illustrates both lived and imposed interpretations of Islamic identity. The ten components include a dominant ink drawing that reflects both genuine and Orientalist imagery; rearticulated archival images; a small lacquered wood souvenir spoon; a child’s jacket (gifted to Hassan’s younger brother by their Uncle Hanny); and a vinyl recording of Prof. Elie Younes and his Orchestra. Central among these is a short video loop that combines black and white local news footage documenting the first Muslim convention in Canada, organized and hosted by members of London, Ontario’s Muslim community in 1955, with colour 8mm film from the Hassan family’s home videos. Members of the Hassan family, including the artist herself at the age of 7, appear in the archival news footage – a discovery that resonated in Hassan’s work for years to come."