Tijay Mohammed
Mama Ubuntu, 2018
acrylic and gold leaf on canvas
51 x 36 inches
Courtesy of the artist
$9500
(20% of proceeds would go to The Loveland Foundation)
Location: Hull Avenue, Bronx, NY 10467
Artist’s description:
Mama Ubuntu is an interpretation of the Statue of Liberty to reflect and celebrate the diverse communities in New York, while honoring the marginalized, and immigrants, particularly women, whose toil and impact goes unappreciated.
The portrait is created with features of my mother Hajia Mariam and three incredible women (Stephanie Alvarado, Janelle Naomi and Antoinette R. Hamilton) whose friendship and conversations have expanded my understanding of the African and African American experiences, and reminding me of the wisdom of my mother and braveness of Ghanaian Queen Mother Nana Yaa Asantewaa.
Her pose in front of a scene from Black Panther movie with the ankh embodies life, wisdom, beauty, confidence, strength, leadership, womanhood, and power.
The piece also references Nana Yaa Asantewaa’s leadership, she was the first and only woman war-leader in Asante history who led an army of 5,000 during the Ashanti-British War of the Golden Stool also known as the "Yaa Asantewaa War” when the British exiled King of Ashante, Nana Prempeh I to the Seychelles Island in 1896, along with other chiefs and members of the Asante government, she stood and bravely addressed the members of the council with her famous words, “How can proud and brave people like the Asantes sit back and look while Whiteman took away their king and chiefs and humiliated them with a demand for the Golden Stool. The Golden Stool only means money to the whiteman; they have searched and dug everywhere for it. I shall not pay one predwan to the governor. If you, the chiefs of Asante, are going to behave like cowards and not fight, you should exchange your loincloths for my undergarments.”
Tijay Mohammed
BLACK BLACK BLACK, 2020
acrylic, resin, glitter glue on Baltic birch plywood
120 x 20 x 2 inches
Courtesy of the artist
Location: Petel Yengue African Supermarket,
1770 Jerome Ave, Bronx, NY 10453
Installed from August 6 through August 9.
No longer on view.
Artist’s description:
BLACK BLACK BLACK: This piece conceptually answers the question of what it means to be black, informed by a complex view of the black and colored experiences in the United States. The new symbol honors and tells a story of every race, color, religion, nationality or gender who re-joined and continue to affirm Black Lives Matter. The work is inspired by Adinkra symbols and the Kente fabric design and four hundred years history from Ghana west Africa through the United States. Shapes and colors on the kente fabric holds a distinctive meaning signifying power, earth, strength, wisdom, wealth, community and ancestral spirit. Relatedly, Adinkra symbols encompass non-verbal communicative and aesthetic values, as well as the way of life. Each design in a letter communicates a unique concept or aphorism about democracy, unity, strength, dignity, death, royalty, freedom, beauty and legacy. The sense of total immersion created inherently by the symbols, forms and shapes and colors, echoes black love and joy an act that demonstrates a commitment to community, self-love and appreciation whilst highlighting the aesthetic beauty of the rich culture and values people of African descents. Symbolically, the piece emphasizes our royalty and heritage alongside honoring our ancestors through the African Burial Ground. Furthermore, I reference Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s I have a Dream speech in 1963 in which he called for Freedom, civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States.
artoftijay.com
Inquiries: eileen@neumeraki.com