Artist Statement – Body Art

Hussein Saidi – May 2004

This exhibition, collectively entitled Body Art, evolved from several other projects I had either begun or kept as ideas in my mind. Most importantly, my continual drive to preserve African culture brought me to research various forms of body art in cultures worldwide, including body painting, tattooing and scarring.

In this exhibition, I highlight the reasons that cultures have carried on the traditions of body art: for ceremonies, spirituality, rituals, beauty and medicinal healing. It was quite a challenge to create these pieces in the media of natural material collage, since the images lent themselves to be created as paintings. This challenge helped me to grow artistically as I found new materials to incorporate, such as milkweed to represent body painting and mica for the cityscape. Also, I used new techniques, such as burning the materials as if I was drawing, to create tattoos and scars. Other materials for the collages include banana, birch and pine barks, leaves, husks, palm fibers and coconut shells. Banana bark is a traditional material used in collages in many parts of East Africa, especially Tanzania, where I was born and raised.

In addition to creating pieces which depict scenes of various cultures carrying on traditions (Ritual, Dancing Women, Children, Priestess and Performers), I felt that I had to design one piece (From Traditional to Modern Body Art) to connect traditional and modern cultures in an ever-present need for tattoos, piercings and intricate hair styles. Modern body art remains popular in order to express individuality, spirituality and fashion.

My art has always intertwined my two worlds, that of my birthplace in Africa, and that of the United States, which has been my home for eight years. The commonality between both worlds is how people interact both with one another and with their environments. In this exhibition, I revere the traditions and spirituality which cultures worldwide have been able to preserve over time in body art, and I also show my curiosity for the forms of body art which remain in modern culture.

Bibliography

Bangs, Richard and Christian Kallen, Exploring the World’s Great Wild Rivers, Yolla Bolly Press Book Published by Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 1985

Beckwith, Carol and Angela Fisher, African Ceremonies: Volume 1, Harry Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York, 1999

Beckwith, Carol and Angela Fisher, African Ceremonies: Volume 2, Harry Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York, 1999

Gilbert, Steve, Tattoo History: A Source Book, Juno Books, LLC, New York, 2000

Reader, John, A Companion to Africa, National Geographic Society, Washington, DC, 2001

Traditional Peoples of Today: The Illustrated History of Humankind, American Museum of Natural History, Volume 5 of the Landmark Series, Harper San Francisco, 1994