Boston: Huma Bhabha at ICA- March 2019
It was special to view Huma Bhabha’s powerful exhibition entitled “Huma Bhabha They Live” at the ICA, in Boston with the artist, her husband, Jason Fox, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn and Alissa Friedman of Salon 94 on Tuesday afternoon before the opening. It is the largest survey of her work and spans 20 years including sculpture, drawing and photography. Her practice includes a wide range of materials such as bronze, bricks, clay, wood construction materials, styrofoam and various other found materials.Huma’s sculptures or “characters” as she refers to them, “feature hybrid bodies or figures that appear human, animal, or alien and evoke life in a post-apocalyptic or ruined landscape”. According to Huma, her practice focuses on “eternal concerns” which are found across all cultures and temporalities: war, colonialism, displacement and memories of home.
The Museum of Fine Arts exhibition “Gender Bending Fashion” deals with the history of fashion “disrupting, blurring and redefining conventions and expectations around the relationship between gender and dress”. The themes include “gender identity and expression, sexuality, race, class, pop culture, activism, social justice and more.”The Jordanian, Canadian artist, designer, film maker, Rad Hourani’s “Manifesto”, 2015, a framed screen print on cotton paper is an extraordinary work. “His vision is centered on the theme of neutrality as a defining human trait, which creates a newer and freer way to live.“I STARTED CREATING WITH A SENSE OF CURIOSITY AND INNOCENCE, DRIVEN BY MY NO-BACKGROUND BACKGROUND, NO SCHOOL, NO TEACHERS, NO TELLY, NO BOUNDARIES, NO FORMATTING. I LIKE THE IDEA OF A WORLD THAT WE COULD LIVE AND SHAPE BY OURSELVES, ONLY BY OBSERVING. EACH OUR OWN. MY CREATIONS HAVE ERUPTED FROM THIS WORLD OF MINE. THEY ARE GENDERLESS, AGELESS AND LIMITLESS. THEY COME FROM NO NATION, NO RACE, NO RELIGION. YET THEY COULD BE HOME ANYWHERE, ANYTIME. THEY EXUDE THE ESSENCE OF TIMELESS STYLE FOR ANTI-CONFORMIST INDIVIDUALS.” - Rad Hourani 