Iman, Al Safa WAI Marwa: Faith in the Pilgrimage

From the Brownsville Museum of Art:

“Ibtisam Tasnim Zaman’s solo exhibition, ‘Iman, Al Safa WAl Marwa: Faith in the Pilgrimage’, is a feature of works that use figurative surrealism to narrate the layers of systemic structures. A constant state of revealing ‘manufactured nature’ through everyday life: in the mundane, journey to work, and overall culture of normalization. Zaman contrasts these dense realities, through depicting acts of intimacy, tenderness, paradox of motherhood, and love as acts of resistance in the midst of chaos.
The title ‘Iman, Al Safa WAl Marwa: Faith in the Pilgrimage’ is an homage to the historical journey of sa’i (seeking), the spiritual overlap between the belief in the one God, and its mirroring of our blind faith in empire. This analysis leads Zaman to identify the deep wells of faith within racial capitalism, revealing aspects of the government’s strategy to guarantee civilian belief in their systems. We all have Iman (faith), regardless of religion; and these faiths we believe in have limitations when placed within contexts of dominance, consumption, and worship to capitalism. The exhibition opens on November 2nd from 12-3 pm, with an artist talk at 1 pm.

Ibtisam Tasnim Zaman is a New York based Black Lesbian American, interdisciplinary, and conceptual artist. Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, Ibtisam moved at six years old to the UAE. This forced migration was shortly after 9/11, to escape the violence that Black Muslims, Muslims of color, and all immigrants are still facing today.

The exhibition opens on November 2nd from 12-3 pm, with an artist talk at 1 pm.”