Ilaa Shalay / Since Yesterday: Global Somali Art

ARTISTS TALK & RECEPTION
Friday, September 13, 2019, 6pm

FILM SCREENING W/ KINSI ABDULLEH:
Aleel (Sea Shell)
Saturday, September 14, 2019, 6pm

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Kinsi Abdulleh (London)
Abdulasis Osman (Minnesota)
Muna Malik (California)
Mustafa Saeed (Hargeysa)

Soomaal House Gallery
2200 Minnehaha Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55404
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In his seminal essay, Cultural Identity and Cinematic Representation, Stuart Hall formulates two ways of defining cultural identity; “first, identity understood as a collective, shared history among individuals affiliated by race or ethnicity that is considered to be fixed or stable; and second, identity understood as unstable, metamorphic, and even contradictory—an identity marked by multiple points of similarities as well differences.”

Using Hall’s reflections on cultural identity as a starting point, Soomaal House proposes a group exhibit titled Ilaa Shalay/Since Yesterday to explore themes of shared history, hyphenated identities and belonging within Somalis in the United States, United Kingdom and Somalia.

Four inter-regional and inter-generational Somali visual artists who have a track record of making rigorous and important work from each of their respective country of residence will exhibit work at Soomaal House of Art in Minneapolis, Minnesota from September 5 through October 5, 2019. These artists will present contemporary visual art using various media such as photography, design, multimedia, installation, and painting.

For the past three decades, Somalia has had political instability causing a huge influx of its citizens to migrate and settle in various parts of the world while most remained in Somalia and Somali-speaking regions of Ethiopia, Kenya & Djibouti. Since the early migration, the diasporic communities directed their focus on immediate needs such as housing, family reunification, education, employment, and making sense of the civil war that precipitated their exodus. Presently, however, these communities have produced emerging and established Somali-born visual artists whose work attempts to examine, redefine and reshape the contours of their cultural identity.

Ilaa Shalay/Since Yesterday will bring together Somali visual artists from across the globe and across a broad range of backgrounds, media and approaches. This exhibition marks the first time this powerful collaboration will take place between different communities who share a common pivotal history and different definitions of what it means to be Somali. All the presenting artists are united by an endless ambition and devotion to creating consequential artwork that investigates the visual representation of their community, cultivates the formation of their collective memory and cultural legacy.

In addition, the artists will facilitate workshop and talks around the theme of their artworks. These discussions highlight the theme and substance of the work, and explore the reasons about their creative processes. We hope these discussions will spark dialogue between the Somali diaspora while fostering interconnectedness between all of our audiences, Somalis and others.

All the artworks and programs will be video-graphed so we can share with the larger community in Minnesota and beyond.
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Exhibit runs from September 5 – October 5, 2019. The exhibit and its programs are free to the public.

For more information on the artists’ background, please visit the exhibit page on Soomaal House’s website;
http://soomaalhouse.com/ilaa-shalay.html

Soomaal House of Art
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This exhibition is made possible by the Visual Arts Fund, a grant program established by Midway Contemporary Art with generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.