Contemporary Art Archives

By Marwa Gadallah

The room's walls are white and there is a white arch at the back. Under this arch lies a round textured gold wooden room divider, which is vertically angled across the middle, with a rectangular black coiled wooden bench before it on a white square platform. Part of a round black coiled wooden side table is showing from the left side on a lower white platform. The rest of the furniture is standing on a beige straw mat. At the front lies a black coffee table in the shape of a half circle with a small round brown piece attached to it. The coffee table is attached to a larger beige table that is also in the shape of a half circle with a small round brown piece attached to it. The wall on the right contains a round double reflection mirror divided horizontally down the middle with the top part showing the author's reflection as she takes a photo of the room with a closed shop in the background outside and the bottom part showing part of the room with the bottom part of the closed shop in the background. Below the mirror lies a console cabinet set composed of two brown and textured pieces each shaped similarly to the letter "B". — *^{Figure 1: Lina Alorabi, “Duality,” 2021 (Photo credit: Marwa Gadallah)}*

I get off the bus near Al-Ahram Newspaper’s offices in the Ramses neighbourhood at around noon and make my way across the street and underneath Al-Galaa Bridge where street vendors sell anything from clothing to food items. As I navigate through the busy streets around people and cars, I think about the COVID-19 pandemic and I wonder at the countless Egyptians who need to pass through these crowds to make a living every day.

As I approach Cinema Radio, there’s a room to my left where I find a collection of furniture. I see a set of round double reflection mirrors, each divided down the middle –either horizontally or vertically– into two sections, each offering a different reflection. Below them is a cabinet set named Isfet, which, in ancient Egyptian culture, represents “chaos and darkness,” the opposite of another piece of hanging furniture named Maat, which represents “order and light.”

The front cover of a magazine in solid light-baby blue with an image at the center. Title of the magazine “BlackFlash” is in white letters in a plain, bold font. Image at the center has a white foreground and has Palestinian embroidery in the top left corner with threads extending from the edge of the piece. Embroidery has floral patterns in red and dark blue with some orange accents. The piece is by Palestinian artist Samar Hejazi — *^{BlackFlash Issue 38.3 “Infinities” featuring Samar Hejazi’s Little Blue-six (2021) from The Intricacies of Wholeness series}*

Canadian arts magazine, BlackFlash, has long been 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.

One of the reasons the Hazine team was so excited to highlight BlackFlash was that the prospect of an Islamic arts issue of BlackFlash was novel: documenting such a project is critical to anyone who identifies with Islamic art –Muslim, however that is defined, or non-Muslim alike– and might want to embark on a similar project. The careful curation of BlackFlash 38.3 is due to its guest editor and BlackFlash editorial committee member, Nadia Kurd. She tells us in this interview how this issue came to be, how it fits into BlackFlash’s overall vision, working with writers, and how Infinities might inspire the Canadian art scene.

All images provided by Nadia Kurd.

You can order a digital or physical copy of Infinities here, read much of the issue online here and enjoy some of the web features related to the issue here. Additionally, Kurd commissioned a series of responses to the issue, which are forthcoming.

At Nadia Kurd’s recommendation, we encourage you to support the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, NISA Homes, and the Indian Residential School Survivor Society.