Exploration of the Human Spirit

Contemporary African Artist's Statement

Hussein

The art I create is an intermingling of my two worlds, that of my birthplace in Tanzania, East Africa, and that of the United States, which has been my home for seven years. The commonality between both worlds is how people interact both with one another and with their environments. I attempt to evoke strong emotions through the use of bold color combinations and shapes.

I use two media to create my art -- acrylic paint on canvas and natural material collages. The paintings' images are either abstracted figures in surrealistic environments, or realistic people in an abstracted space. The natural material collages utilize banana plant "bark", birch bark, leaves, pine needles and husks combined in a traditional, meticulous process. The pieces depict scenes from daily life, or "ujamaa," which is Kiswahili for cooperation, unity in family, and in community life. There is beauty in some of the most mundane aspects of life. Though the scenes in these collages tend to be nostalgic of life in Africa, they communicate the beauty of everyday life, shared globally among all people.

Additionally, during the Washington sniper incident in 2002, I was so moved by the extreme emotions felt by the victims, their families, the local community, and the international community, that I created a body of work, collectively entitled "Contradictions," "Contradictions" represented my exploration of the human spirit and the contradictions that appear inherent within it. Questions in my mind arose regarding one of philosophy's great debates: John Locke's belief that people are naturally moral, reasonable, and tolerant versus Thomas Hobbes' belief that people are naturally wicked. I explored the unanswerable question of how one human can bring such pain to others, and attempted to create a visual definition for how a community comes back together after it has been torn apart.

There is a spirtual nature to my work, reflecting a reverence for the full range of emotions people experience. I pay homage to the joy in dance and music, the serenity of nature, and the ultimate grief that comes with loss. In my art, my two worlds come together in the exploration of the human spirit.

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