That one!
Habib Albi, Lee Henderson, Amin Rehman, Narcel Reedus
A Space Main Gallery
May 1 – 29, 2009
Curated by: Stephen Fakiyesi
Performances Friday May 1st
7:00 - 9:00 PM, Lee Henderson, Lines
7:40 - 8:40 PM, Habib Albi, Habib Albi is... Not a Man
That one! explores self-imposed guilt and the possibility of punishment for the history of racially motivated injustices, as well as the effects of racial stereotyping on the lives and psyches of African American, Arab, and South Asian men. As male artists from diverse backgrounds, Habib Albi, Lee Henderson, Amin Rehman and Narcel Reedus are each grappling with the organic unfolding of the evolution that began in the 60s with the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Their working out of identity, politics and authenticity is considerable in the current political climate, signified in large part by the Obama presidency.
Biographies
Habib Albi is interested in the process of salvaging one’s individuality/humanity from the numerous consuming dispositions of our socio-political environment, and also in exploring how dramatic and visual poetry illuminate the relationship between psyche and society. He grew up in Egypt, Oklahoma and Ohio, and has studied and worked in the field of education. He is the producer of the plays Jihad to be There and Dreaming of Being a Coward, and the work-in-progress [circumnavigating the Great Lakes by land and writing] which explores geography as an axis of identity.
Lee Henderson is a media-based artist from Saskatchewan. He has studied art in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Germany, and with talented professionals including Maria Vedder, Brian Eno, and Ellen Bromberg. Since completing his MFA in Intermedia, he has been furthering his time- and lens-based artistic practice while teaching in the Departments of Visual Art and Computer Science at the University of Regina, and exhibiting in Canada, Germany, the UK and the US. His photographs, installations, videos and performances revolve around investigations of impermanence, philosophy, and the mortality of individuals and systems.
Amin Rehman is a Toronto based visual artist whose work explores politicized cultural interactions, communal narratives, linguistic forces and aggressive globalization. His art practice comprises works on paper, canvas, and board, as well as wall-hung installations. Amin has exhibited locally as well as internationally in Sydney, Melbourne, Tehran, and England. Amin’s extensive and multidisciplinary art education includes a degree in design from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan (1982), curatorial studies from the University of Manchester, UK (1988) and a Smithsonian Internship in Washington DC in 1988.
Born in Gary, Indiana, Narcel G. Reedus is a writer, director, independent filmmaker and media artist. He has won national awards for his dramatic short films including Race Juice and The Fight and was awarded a Peabody for his writing. His films have screened at the Lincoln Center in New York, on PBS and internationally in Rotterdam, Bermuda, Milan and Berlin. Narcel earned his MFA in Film and Media Arts from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is currently negotiating development deals with two of his independent feature scripts
Stephen Fakiyesi is a Nigerian born Toronto based artist, an independent curator and marketing manager for the Etobicoke based marketing firm The Samurai Group. He received a BA in Art and Art History from the joint University of Toronto Mississauga/Sheridan College art program in 1994, and a MFA from the University of California Los Angeles in 2003. Fakiyesi has exhibited at numerous venues including SOF Arthouse, Mercer Union, AGO, LACMA and ACME Gallery. His work deals with issues of identity and spirituality.