The Project Highlights

The culture connect project was highly acclaimed and acknowledged by many nationwide newspaper and media supporters, which spot the project among the community activities of its specific characteristic initiatives and unique conceptual esthetics.

This highlight is one of the main strengths of the project, and therefore; the incredible generosity and appreciation given by the IWAQ Director / Galila Abdel-Salam, the Project Coordinator / Magdy Shiha and the Art Teacher / Renee Hood to invite and share their knowlage and community leadership with the students stories, talents and knowledge / skills.

The project has established a safe space for engaging with multicultural and diverse backgrounds, while raising the awareness about the importance of understanding and working together in the reconciliation process.

"This exhibition brought together excellent and thought provoking art which has been created by diverse background artists and communities working together." SBS Radio said with an interview with the project coordinator / Magdy shiha.

The interviews and media coverage have help to engage as many as audience across Logan and the Brisbane city with the project understanding and excel its objectiveness.

IWAQ Director, project coordinator and all the team work would like to thank and acknowledge the media coverage (please visit the link below):

• Crescents of Brisbane Newsletter - Edition438
• Crescents of Brisbane Newsletter - Edition 447
• SBS Radio - the Arabic program
• Al Wasat Newspaper
• Muslim Times Newspaper

 

AIIC Student Showcase

Our Culture

Our Community

Our Story

A visual art exhibition celebrating diversity and multiculturalism

Created by AIIC students

 

Zaid Hamshari, Salma Sid-Ahmed, Aziz Ullah, Yeasmida Begum, Mohamed Kenneh, Tasnim Akter, Ezna Rashid, Safiyyah Makada

Across five weeks in term two, a group of students were set the challenge of becoming professional artists. They learn skills and techniques from our artist-in-residence, project coordinator/ Magdy Shiha, and were asked to put those talents to work when creating their own art pieces. The students were asked to create artworks which connected to their cultures in some way. The result is a collection of diverse works which tell cultural stories; and together they tell our story.

Zaid Hamshari (b. 1996, Palestine) 

 

Cardboard, acrylic, enamel spray, wire, chopsticks

Palestinian Wedding (2013)

 

 

My artwork is about the ongoing war in Palestine. War is having a negative impact on my country. It is destroying Palestine and the happiness of its people.

Safiyyah Makada (b. 1998, South Africa)

 

Cardboard, acrylic paint, wire, feather necklace, paper

False and Reality (2013)

 

My artwork shows how the people are in South Africa. I was aiming to show the ugly side of it and how people feel like they are unsafe; there are many bars and barriers used to protect people. I also wanted to show the other side of the story, the positive side. Part of the two sides is also the wealth and the poverty; which separates people in my country.

Mohamed Kenneh (b. 2001, Guine)

 

Cardboard, acrylic paint, clay, tissue paper, mosaic stones, wire, eye stickers

Do you want to see Conakry?(2013)

 

My artwork is about the Jeena and my country. The Jeena is like an animal; which livws in the woods and is afraid of electricity. It has a tail and if it hits you, you go crazy! Can you see the Jeena tail in the wood?

 

Tasnim Akter (b.1998, Bangladesh)

 

Paper, black marker, glue, canvas, acrylic, henna paint

Henna Tower(2013)

I like to paint Henna on my hands and on the hands of my friends. This artwork presents the beauty of the Henna designs. The towers represents designs I have seen on Candles. I like how you can move around the artwork and see it in a new way. 

Acrylic paint, charcoal

 Beauty Of the Eye(2013)



Sometimes, people can only see ugly in the world. They think everything is sad and they can't find the happiness in their eye. Some people don't like to live; they hate this world. But we can see everything good and beautiful. We can make our self and our hearts see the world as good and beautiful. 

Yeasmida Begum (b. 1995, Bangladesh)

Water colour, acrylic, Henna tube

Henna Design(2013)


People wear Henna when they get married and when they celebrate. I put Henna on my hands every day because I love the look of the Henna on my hands. I created this artwork to share my original Henna designs so that others can be inspired by my creations.

Salma Sid-Ahmed (b. 1996, Somalia/Australia)

Lino on canvas, acrylic, tissue paper

Reflection of my Heritage(2013)




My artwork was created to show Somalia's past and present and how they are connected. Also, my country's past reflects its future. There is both beauty and destruction in Somalia and when I think of my country, I see both sides.









More Artworks and Student Workshops Gallery 

The Cultural Heritage

The heritage of Islam in Africa can also include the intangible records of our past such as, Timbuktu, Mali West Africa memories, stories and songs, ways of life, customs, attitudes and interactions between individuals and communities, and even the words only used in old crafts and trades. Sometimes these intangibles can be collected as oral histories and stored on tapes or videos or, as with crafts, trades, dances and customs, they can be passed on in a living, viable form to the next generation.

The richness of any culture may vary from one to another, however cross-culture and interpersonal relationship has make it difficult sometimes to differentiate the multi aspects of culture connections.

Cultural heritage conservation would preserve social and community strength and keep generations healthy enough to communicate and share with other communities. That save the historical heritage from damage.

Culture give meaning to who people know or think they are; how they behave; how they interpret and respond to the behavior of others; but most importantly, culture tells numerous stories about why people behave the way they do. Thus, to truly understand a person’s culture, it important to go deeper than what the eye can see; dig deeper than the arts and delve deep into the histories for it is there the people can be found. People’s histories are where culture was birthed so it is in the histories of the people that culture must be understood.

Understanding of a people outside of their histories can lead to many inconsistencies about a group of people which can fuel inequalities and practices that stagnate a people, who may be already marginalized in the country of origin or a foreign country.

Liberian dancers, stories and living aspects evoke communities well for understanding and sharing.

 

That is why understanding the tenets of cross-cultural interactions must be learned, practiced and planned for because these are crucial for cross-cultural engagements, especially in this global ill-defined economic environment where business relationships need to be more symbiotic and collaborative, especially in these uncertain times where the search for meaning is resource driven and in some cases it is exhausting.

Thank you

Project Coordinator | Magdy Shiha

The Creative Spark

Simply understanding that creative spark is solving problems in making new connections between older ideas, non-seamless observations and help to develop creative capacities, no matter how it is going to work. It’s absolutely something you can cultivate.

The point is simply to start your thinking about things carefully, so that you take the time to really assess what you know about each object or person. Creativity is often found in the overlooked details.

The benefits from the past 3 week workshops of developing your ability to draw connections and strengthen your creative mind are twofold. First, better creative thinkers experience enhanced problem-solving skills, which naturally promotes work productivity, life, and relationships. Second, seeing connectivity and sharing productivity of thinking with non-routine manner allows you to more adequately assess connections being presented to you.

Your creative mind sharpens your analytical capacities—you’ll know when you’re being presented with inaccurate or incomplete information. Most of you adopt some skills and acquire knowledge to sustain better way of revealing their cultural context while for the rest of you it was difficult rather an ambiguous vague discontent.

The outcome to struggle toward a self confidence is one of the main goals of the art project. Being self-confident and outward expressive player empowers your senses and sharpen your inner thought to dig and ask question.

That is the first spark of identity, is to ask questions and to find out creative meaning of their answers. It is well known in art as research or experimentation. We spend a time to to learn and study that creativity requires uncertainty by definition, because we're trying to do something that hasn't been done before.

But many of you were not sure of breaking that wall between formal education and informal research and concept development process.

Probably, it is the first time you've heard of concept and development of your creative thinking. But after the workshops stage and during your production stage you will be able to realize and examine the true meaning of yourself expression as being as self motivated and well certain of your identity.

I'm proud to see your artwork and the most of all happy that you find your way out to your own creative spark

Thank you

Project Coordinaor | Magdy Shiha

Environmental Sculpture

This third week  workshop allows students to consider the natural environment around them as a means of art making practice. 

Students are introduced to contemporary, site specific environmental sculpture. They are encouraged to apply the conceptual framework to their sculptural piece when conceiving and discussing their art making processes and outcomes. 

Students follow a decision making process through experimentation and collaboration. 

Students will learn to care about their environment and consider the importance of the site.  By photographing their work, students will learn about the importance of documenting their art as well as the ephemeral nature of the art form.

Students conduct a research and exploring sites at their school, with their art teacher Renee Hood demonstration of using nature materiel and elements as a source of inspiration for sculpture.

For more inspiring ideas of environmental conceptual sculpture please visit this website:

http://pinterest.com/EllenJayeBenson/inspiring-conceptual-sculpture-installation-assemb/ 

http://www.wayfarergallery.net/dicksartblog/?tag=conceptual-sculpture 

http://www.ours.ch/cosmicdancer.php 

Thoughts on Environmental Sculpture

What is an "environmental sculpture?" Let's start by thinking about what an environment is. According to the dictionary, it's "the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences."

An environmental sculpture has a special relationship with its surroundings. It's planned for a particular site, and the qualities of that site influence the making of the artwork. The space can be anywhere – a room, a grove of trees, a pond, an alleyway, a public plaza, a complex of buildings. Often existing on a grand scale, an environmental sculpture surrounds its viewers, who experience the artwork as they enter and move through the space. The elements of time and movement, then, are also involved as important parts of the viewer's experience.

One could argue that any sculpture has a relationship with its surroundings. How we experience a sculpture is affected by its placement, how it's illuminated, how we move around it, and what other things are nearby. Any sculpture engages in a formal and conceptual dialogue with its site. But this conversation isn't planned, it's ad hock; the interaction between a sculpture and its site may distract from the artist's intention or the viewer's pleasure in looking at the sculpture.

An environmental sculptor plans a piece from the very beginning in relationship to its surroundings. The site is a catalyst, becoming part of the creative process. The finished sculpture and its site form one integrated unit, working together to create a unified mood or atmosphere. In most of the works on this website, I spent hours on site beforehand conceiving the sculpture, then I built it on site; the space became my artist's studio during the installation process.

Each site has particular characteristics, which can affect the qualities of the finished sculpture. For example, a room may have a wall of windows through which afternoon light streams in, which becomes part of the design. Or a pond may have a path that leads to it or a grove of oak trees nearby that drop their leaves into it, sparking an idea for a sculpture on the site.

An environmental sculpture may also be a series of interrelated objects that exist together in a space, and through a repetition of materials, forms, qualities of light, or thematic links, they engage in a conversation, charging the space and making one aware of the atmosphere in the entire room. The individual sculptures may be small, but they create a kind of zing or spark between them. Then the larger space becomes unified, and one is aware not just of the materials but of the spaces between things.


More photos and video clips will be uploaded soon

Thank you

Project Coordinator | Magdy Shiha

 

Painting By Other Means

The painting session meant to train the student to think of the painting artwork not only as 2 dimensional canvas on the wall, but also as a 3 dimensional concept that give form and essence of specific place.

Many objects could be used to express that concept such as cardboard boxes, container and objects that belongs to specific places and time.

Cardboard, boxes and old suit cases evoke a certain symbol to our life and play a part to explore and play with. For such, all the class agree to make that conceptual painting by using a cardboard boxes of different shapes and size.

We decide to give the box an identity that will indicate and symbolize certain meaning for every individual. One may think of his box as his private room, home, house, memory, safe, storage of some sort of belongings.

The fun part of using the box as shape to paint is being able to use the inner and the outer beside parts of its sides as well. I start the workshop by conducting a series of charcoal drawings, portraits and objects on paper to learn the students some powerful tools of drawing skills which will be used as key inspiration element in their painting.

From the scratch of these drawings we place them to the cardboard inner and outer surface making designs out of them all together. Cutting and pasting parts of the drawings, gluing pieces of one drawing to another give the student an image of composing as the main part of the whole concept which lead them to focus on the whole work and not only to the pieces they create.

My 15 minutes demonstration was quite enough to pump the energy and to deliver a dynamic message for the students to respond and start making their own artwork. The game to play with the charcoal drawings, pieces of cut and past glued to the board surface, paints of maroon, white and splashes of white with strong brush touches and texture; turn the final artwork to unexpected form of art composition.

Many of the students didn't realize what is going on and what could be the power of doing the painting that way. Some of them ask questions to understand and finally they learn that art making is about to play and focus on the design process of using their elements and principles that have been taught to them at the art class.

Each one pick up his own box and size and began to re-shape and re-design the individual ones. 

I comment ' that is exactly what the culture connect project is all about. To re-design and re-shape the individual experience, story and background and bring it to a new form to express the dream and the hope of the today and the future ones '

I felt the sense of relief as every on in the class become so happy to share this uniqueness of their individual experiences and decide to trace trace this creative process in a different way. In their way.

Some of the students decide to make a collaborative artwork and sharing together at one process. It shows me that our workshop on the right track and the students will be able to use those skills further more as they come to make their final conceptual art work for the project.

Many thanks to the art teacher / Renee Hood of facilitating the workshop progress and elevating the sense of understanding and engagement among the students.

For further information about this workshop and its progress please read Renee Hood's post on that blog. 

Please visit this website Painting Gallery for more inspirations and ideas:

almadarstudio.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=4188678 

More photos and video clips of the painting workshop week will be uploaded to the blog and on the Project YouTube website soon

Thank you

Project Coordinator | Magdy Shiha               
 

Today in class I was doing a concept to make a storyboard for my artwork I wasn't really sure what do, Mr Magdi  came to me and gave some good ideas to do the concept, one of the ideas that I liked to do is how the people in Palestine sitting at home and the war is going on out side the houses with bullets going through the houses like the bullets are destroying the houses and the happiness of people. I will present this on a card board and start making my art work.