Over the last 50 years, the Horn of
Africa has endured border wars, political revolutions,
drought, and famine.
Many East Africans have fled their homelands,
seeking refugee from these life-threatening conditions. According to a report
by the U.S. Committee for Refugees, the United States has admitted 85,353 African
immigrants between 1988-2000. Once the immigrants are granted asylum, the struggle
is not over; the long work of assimilation begins. Artists from Somalia, Eritrea,
and Ethiopia share their experience in the exhibition “Salaam: Voices of
Peace” at Seattle Central Community College’s M. Rosetta Hunter
gallery.
One piece in the show, “Naturalization,” is a portrait of an African
woman from the waist up. The painting is split asymmetrically through the middle;
the left half of the woman is realistically painted in a green and yellow floral
dress and a royal blue turban, while her right half is naked and muted in a shadow
of black paint. Streaks of the green and yellow from the dress appear over the
woman’s naked and lifeless half. Her expression is very somber. In this
painting, Osman portrays the identity crisis many immigrants suffer as they
wait five to seven years in the naturalization process to become United States
citizens.
“
It is difficult for an immigrant from a different cultural background to identify
as being an American,” the artist, Mohamed Osman, says. “He gets
confused between these two cultures.”
Osman, 50, is originally from Somalia. He completed his medical degree in Europe
and moved to Canada in 1992 as a refugee seeking political asylum. He moved to
the United States in 1994 to perform his residency. It was during this residency
that Osman first began painting.
“
I never thought it would come to anything. I just wanted to get involved in something
that would give me peace of mind,” Osman says. Since 1994, Osman’s
artwork has been featured in 15 art exhibitions and has been the subject of
numerous newspaper articles and medical journals including The Seattle Times,
Group Health,
and Scope.
Osman met Yegizaw Michael and Sultan Mohamed through the local art community.
United through their similar experiences and a shared passion for art, the three
painters began a dialogue about art, politics, education, and social inequality.
The men came up with a proposal for a collaborative show, and presented it to
Seattle Central gallery curator Ken Matsudaira.
“
This was a really unique opportunity for us, to be able to gain insight into
this very important demographic,” says Matsudaira. The show allows viewers
to “understand a little bit more about the challenges of the immigrant
experience and the difficulties in adjusting to the two worlds.”
The three address personal and political issues through their paintings that
transcend color, race, gender, and nationality to bridge a gap between cultures.
Painter and muralist Yegizaw Michael hopes that people who see the exhibition”may
discover that there are more similarities than differences between our cultures.”
In “Window of Silence,” a painting by the 34-year-old Michael, the
use of geometric shapes, earth tones, and letters from Geez, the Eritrean alphabet,
reflect a Byzantine influence. Layers of paint have been blended and etched to
create a multifaceted surface. In the painting, the abstracted figure’s
eye and mouth are barred closed with horizontal lines. This painting is representative
of what we physically see and hear but psychologically and spiritually ignore.
“
Problems are everywhere. All over the world, we have the same human reaction.
We see homeless people on the street, but we ignore them. There are many things
we see but we are purposely blind to,” Michael says
Michael moved to the United Stated in 1999 from Eritrea after accepting an Artist
in Residence in New Jersey. He is currently working on a 7 by 17-foot ceramic
mosaic for La Louisiana Restaurant at 25th Avenue and Cherry Street. It should
be completed and installed by the end of the month.
In 1998, a border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia turned into war. Michael’s
mother and father were two of the thousands of Eritreans arrested and deported
from Ethiopia. His family’s property was seized and their bank accounts
were frozen.
“
They (my family) were victims of the whole situation. I condemn
the deportation, but I have the same love and respect for both
countries,” Michael said. “If we start hating,
we don’t have peace.”
Although the artists in “Salaam: Voices of Peace” share
similar experiences and philosophies, the only aesthetic they
share is the use of bold colors. Their styles and approaches
to paint, texture, and composition are quite diverse. Sultan
Mohamed uses a variety of mixed media including acrylic and
newspaper in his collage entitled “Harvest of Death.” A
newspaper article with a picture of a malnourished woman holding
her frail and invalid child is juxtaposed with a Buddha-like
figure and an advertisement with the word “Free.” Mohamed
uses bright orange and red paint throughout the collaged painting,
creating a fiery illusion. It presents the irony of the drought
and famine occurring in his native land with the abundance
of food that is often wasted in this country. He says, “My
pieces show the problems and ask Ôwhat can we do to solve
them?”’
Mohamed, 41, moved to Seattle from Ethiopia in 1982. He teaches
art at Asa Mercer Middle School, and has shown his work in
more than 35 exhibitions in Washington and Canada. In 1992,
1994, and 1998, Mohamed spent his summer vacations in Ethiopia,
studying traditional paintings and frescos.
“
I believe that the past is intricately linked to the present;
they cannot be separated. Although I studied Western art during
my university course work, I have never strayed far from my
cultural influences, which are symbolically represented in
my art by human figures, colors, lines, and shapes,” Mohamed
said.
The exhibition, originally titled “Healing through Art,” is
full of life, a life of hardships most Americans will never
experience. After viewing these colorful and expressive paintings,
the viewer understands pain, struggle, and hope — and
appreciates artists with such a powerful and uplifting message.
