Acrylic on canvasexpand_more
Gift of funds from Mary and Bob Merskyexpand_more 2022.50
A natural storyteller, Umar Rashid’s practice reinvents the paths of populations often omitted from the historical record. Through writing, illustration, painting, and sculpture, he creates alternative historical narratives—including a what-if story about France and England unifying into a gargantuan empire "Frenglish"—that reference a panoply of cultures and collapse geography and time while underlining the intricacies of race, gender, class, and overall power in the colonial world. The artist steers clear of simplistic dichotomies. Instead, Rashid’s work challenges the viewer to consider the complex feelings and conducts that make up every human. In his tale’s people are as likely to be heroes as villains no matter their color, which ultimately acknowledges their agency as historical actors.
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