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Islamic Art in Contemporary Canada: Nadia Kurd on BlackFlash's Infinities Issue - Hazine
Canadian arts magazine, BlackFlash, has long been a figure in platforming the diverse and divergent in visual contemporary art. In its latest issue for Fall/Winter 2021, Infinities (38.3), it focuses on Islamic art, defined loosely, generously and inclusively; applied to everything from Instagram posts to ceramics to Microsoft Word, as a medium. The issue represents an important moment in the history of Muslims living in Canada, which understands them as part of the art scene, but also seeks to highlight how many immigrant Muslims are also taking accountability as settlers living on colonized land; the essays and artists in the issue question their relationship to the land and their responsibilities to its Indigenous peoples, as well as other systems of oppression such as anti-Blackness and Islamophobia. Infinities even looks beyond Canada and includes on its front cover an image of Palestinian tatreez by artist Samar Hejazi, which, as a medium, by sheer means of its existence is a stand against Israeli settler-colonialism.