all artwork by the author; photos courtesy BintaZarah Studios
My process as an artist involves all modes of using already existing objects, images, sounds, footage, and methods and then incorporating them into a single artwork. This approach to making speaks to my experiences growing up in Northern Nigeria, a region where the influences of the Middle East, the colonial West, and sub-Saharan African cultures converged in a way that gave me permission to observe, embrace, and alter the social, the structural, and the visceral within and among the civilizations involved.
This idea of cultural convergence is exemplified in Letter to Kyauta (Fig. 1). I create a fictional letter written on wooden Qu'ranic boards that have been decorated for graduation ceremonies. Kyauta, a woman living in a rural area, writes her sister who now lives in an urban area, seeking her help because this year's harvest has been affected...