UW–Madison’s Faisal Abdu’Allah and Chris Walker were featured in a recent article in the Wisconsin State Journal shining a light on work by Black artists in Madison.
The article, headlined “Black Madison artists working to create a permanent ‘renaissance,’” notes the landscape for Black artists in Madison is changing, with long-established, white-dominated institutions diversifying their offerings.
“I’ve been here 16 years, almost 17, and I’ve seen the city change – literally, structurally” with the development of the East Washington corridor and the shutting down of hip-hop clubs and other spaces for Black community members to gather, said Walker, the director of UW–Madison’s Division of the Arts and a professor in the School of Education’s Dance Department.
“But over the last couple of years, particularly since George Floyd’s death and a sort of public reawakening and conversations around race, individuals and organizations have put out statements to reflect their particular stance on race,” Walker said. “That was followed up by what seems to be a series of actions.” In other words, he said, “‘Let’s not just say this, but how do we hold each other accountable?’”
“And it is in that part of the conversation that I’m beginning to see what I’d say is the beginning of a change,” Walker said. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say there’s a changing landscape, but we’re at the beginning.”
All the same, he cautions, “this moment that we’re experiencing could easily be a quick ‘pin,’ in the history of the arts in Madison, which happened for a year or two and then disappeared, because the infrastructure wasn’t there.”
A soon-to-be-installed sculpture by Faisal Abdu’Allah is among work by Black artists that is spotlighted in the article. Abdu’Allah is the Chazen Family Distinguished Chair in Art and the associate dean of the arts in the School of Education.
Abdu’Allah’s sculpture, titled “Blu³eprint,” is a precursor to a September exhibition of Abdu’Allah’s work, “DARK MATTER,” at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMOCA).
Carved from Indiana limestone, the life-size sculpture depicts Abdu’Allah seated in a barber’s chair, and it will be positioned on State Street outside of MMOCA for at least the next two years.
“State Street has a lot of footfall,” Abdu’Allah said. “People come to visit, people come to have a night out on the town. I think it’s in a very prominent space, and it’s smart to have many different eyes looking on it.”
“To me, the piece is about who gets memorialized,” said Abdu’Allah. “Who gets commemorated, and what are the stories we are told?”
“The fact that I’m sitting in that chair is symbolic,” Abdu’Allah said of his likeness in “Blu³eprint.” Abdu’Allah, who has worked as a barber, said the barber shop “is a space where lots of cultural activity takes place. It’s a place where people come together.”
“That chair is the space where the old is cut away,” he said, “and the new is formulated.”
To learn more about this and other work by Black artists in Madison, check out the full article at madison.com.