Artist Statement
My name is Hannaan Bilal , I am a student at University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee studying Community Arts. My Medium is Acrylic Painting and my style is abstract design.
The design I’ve chosen speaks for itself through a message about unfolding facts that are full of positivity in “Black History”, education, and Community Arts. The design brings optimism, knowledge, culture and intelligence. I want to focus on Ancient Afro Civilization that brought creativity, innovative inventions, and knowledge to education and art. My first painting is about the historic ruler of Timbuktu, Mali named Mansa Musa. (1312 -1337 CE)
Musa was one of the richest kings in the continent of Africa. The reason why I chose Mansa Musa as the main visual for BA Project is because he was one of the first rulers to invest in the University of Sankore to push Afro people to get an education which also became an Islamic center. Musa gave back by discovering mathematicians, astronomers , scholars of art, and architects. The second painting is about the Jamaican Pan – African activist Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) who was a black entrepreneur , leader of Pan- Africanism Movement, being the founder of the Black Star Line company and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Both leaders like Musa and Garvey had the same qualities and goals by doing for the community and investing education. I want to display unknown facts that are not talked about in society due
to all the negativity that we see in the media about Afro Americans. Therefore my focus is “Black Joyful Life”. The hierarchy of these rulers needs to be shown through community arts and education because it’s positive in history that was ignored and needs to be uplifted. The thought process of having logic to an abstract piece like this is represented as freedom because learning , skill , and knowledge is another way of evolving .
The materials that are used for this piece are acrylic paints , gesso . African fabric , beads and pastel pencil for the sketch . Abstract style is the focal point because it’s considered to be abnormal and mysterious but has a message where the audience will go figure out a thought or message for themselves. Cubism is to be shown as aesthetics of beauty. The reason why is because it’s the example of bringing people together as a union to learn about something that is not talked about in schools or universities but the art will speak for itself because there is a reason behind the message or statement and a visual will make the audience think , travel far and evolve in every way.
delete and put jetpack tiled gallery here