“Djamila,” Asad Faulwell’s first lithograph, depicts Djamila Bouhired, one of the female combatants who took part in The Battle of Algiers. Djamila, like her comrades, carried out attacks against the colonial French population in Algiers. This piece attempts to show how these women were both aggressors and victims, victimized both by their French adversaries and ostracized by Algerian society. The image was rendered using traditional lithographic techniques taken to an extreme fruition, afterwards finished with hand applied embellishments.
Asad Faulwell
DJAMILA, 2018 | 21 plate, variable edition lithograph mounted on Komatex, with collage, painted map tacks, and gold pins Artist’s Statement / How the work was made Dajmila, Inspired by Gillo Pontecorvo’s film “The Battle of Algiers” attempts to show how female combatants in The Battle of Algiers were both aggressors and victims, victimized both […]
Larassa Kabel
Kabel’s work gravitates towards uncomfortable subjects, using art as a tool for clarity by asking questions that may have many answers but only one truth. How do we encounter suffering with compassion, propagate grace, open ourselves to a relationship with death, and recognize the nature of power? Each inquiry rings like a bell that was a cup until it was struck. Kabel’s work reminds us that it is easy to be unconscious through most of our lives but that unconsciousness leaves us unprepared for the inevitable times when our better natures must be called upon.
Untitled, 2016
I find a calm beauty in subtlety, a soft grace, like a breath of moist forest air. The subtle whites of this piece shift when seen from different angles as trees fall back and move forward, offering new ways of seeing. It reminds me that life is full of beautiful perspectives if we slow down, look close, and allow ourselves to see more than we do at first glance, honoring the subtle beauty all around us.
Ouroboros Shredder
In my experience, great creations speak for themselves, and speak also, to their predecessors. Such were my aspirations as Andrzej Zielinski and I began our dialog about what to do for his upcoming lithograph.
The evening Andrzej Zielinski and I met to discuss concepts for this print, the studio felt small, as if trying to contain the many ideas Andrzej brought to the table. Ideas were leveraged, but we narrowed them down to a folded print, structurally similar to a few steel sculptures Andrzej was working on at the time.
The concept was electrifying and frightening, and a bit abstract, in that Andrzej’s concept differed from any other folded print I’d seen or read about. Which is something that will clarify itself as you read on…
Two Things Happening At The Same Time
During the first visit I took to Rashawn Griffin’s studio, as we stood in front of a wall covered in his work, he gave me this warning: “What I do looks like it was done quickly, but I labor over these. Most pieces take a long time to finish.”
It’s true. Rashawn’s art does have a fluid, easy going nature to it. Nowhere does this become more apparent than in Two Things Happening At The Same Time, Griffin’s first lithograph, where an unexpected world of composition, interplay of shapes, textures, and color compositions comes alive.
Longevity
By Laura Berman
The story here is of a gentle sway, a sigh, and a settling into. The lines respond to each other one by one, building upwards and compacting downwards over time. This moment in time is not a crescendo, but rather, a much-needed pause afterwards. A vibrating harmony of everything at its brightest and best.