| Summary: | The exhibition DARK MATTER and its accompanying catalogue highlight the work of internationally recognized artist Faisal Abdu'Allah. Through explorations of personal identity, cultural representation, and the systems of power that structure our experiences of the world, he focuses attention on the human capacity for radical transformation. From contemporary approaches to portrait photography and experimental printmaking to large scale installations and interactive performances, Abdu'Allah uses a wide range of materials and processes to recontextualize the images we associate with race, class, and power. In doing so, the artist asks us how our own ideologies, as well as cultural and historical influences, impact our relationship to others and to ourselves. In addition to being an artist, Abdu'Allah is also a barber, a profession he has fully integrated into his artistic practice, most notably through his community-based Live Salon performances (2006-present) and his recent Hairtraits series. Abdu'Allah reflects on the importance of the barbershop within the political, social, and economic life of many Black communities, past and present. With a foreword by Leah Kolb, former MMoCA Curator of Exhibitions, the 114-page book features full-color and often tactile images of each work in the exhibition. Also included is an essay by Bárbaro Martínez-Ruiz titled "On the Art of Dislocation," which is an excerpt and expansion of the original essay, in response to DARK MATTER. The catalogue concludes with a conversation between Abdu'Allah and Zoé Whitley, who first saw the artist's work, Garden of Eden, in 2003 at the Chisenhale Gallery in London's East End and who now directs the gallery. The book was designed by Art & Sons and printed by American Printing, both based in Madison, WI. -- Publisher's website.
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