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JAMELIE HASSAN
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Family history The artist was born in London ,Ontario in 1948 to Lebanese parents. Her father traveled with his father from mountain villages of Lebanon , which was under the Turkish rule at the time, to North America when he was sixteen. This was in the early 1900s, around the beginning of the First World War. When Hassan was a child her home became the meeting place for immigrants, who came to North America from the Middle East . Her family was central in the activity since her father was one of the first immigrants to move to London ,Ontario from the Middle East and he helped the newcomers to settle down and find a job. Her childhood was characterized by many people coming in and out, by displaced relatives and other immigrants, by socializing and cooking traditional food, playing of traditional music and dancing and also by Arabic language. Hassan had strong connection to the Arabic culture while living in a white Anglo-Saxon community and she became very aware of the differences between the two cultures. There was also a generational gap in her family because her father was quite old he almost could have been her grandfather. Hassan’s parents had an influence on her strong affinity to investigate her own heritage and past, the Arabic culture and ways of doing things, that also included to a certain extent Islamic ways, which, in turn, contributed to her interest in researching the notion of women within the Islamic tradition. Hassan had a memory of a strong relationship to the landscape in Lebanon , even though she did not live there as a child. She says the connection was more metaphorical and symbolic. She encountered a lot of difficulties when her background clashed with the Western educational structures, systems and stereotypes of the East. Hassan has been interested in traveling and the movement of people, ideas and cultures throughout her life, which has influenced her artwork. Becoming a visual artist was a natural occurrence according to the artist, and her family supported her. Hassan says she has always had a tendency to work with the Islamic framework, which can be seen in the use of floral or geometric embellishment, calligraphy in drawing or painting and in the textual references. Textual references play important role in her artwork and reflect her perception that words are paramount, because language has always been the communication device within Arabic culture. Although Hassan explores the issues of identity and displacement she does not consider her own history confusing and fracturing for her, merely strengthening. Also her son has influenced Hassan’s work, in terms of mediation and passing on a culture and tradition. Bringing her extended family into this open forum of art, Hassan says was very un-Arabic. Studies and travels After her high school studies, Hassan traveled to Rome (1967) and studied art in the Academy of Fine Arts and also in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Beirut (1968). In 1969 she returned to London ,Ontario and continued studying while working in the library at the University of Western Ontario . Hassan established her first own studio in 1972 and began to work professionally. She was also very active in the cultural community of the city. Later she continued her studies in the University of Windsor . In 1976 and 1977, after two successful solo exhibitions, Hassan went on trips to Central and South America , where she identified with the people who struggled to reconstruct or maintain their own cultural identity, which had been fractured by colonialism. Through her travels she realized her own sense of cultural displacement and rootlessness. The first exhibition, where her realization of cultural displacement was evident, was the 1976 installation at the Forest City Gallery. In 1978 Hassan left London again and traveled to Baghdad where she studied Arabic at the University of Mustansyria . Her travels to Middle East revealed the devaluation of humanity but also confirmed her own rootlessness. Hassan’s artwork is strongly influenced by her travels around the world. She has traveled extensively in North America (Canada ), Central America (Mexico ,Cuba ), South America (Colombia ,Nicaragua ), Europe (Italy ,Spain ,Germany ), the Middle East (Iraq ,Lebanon ,Turkey ,Syria ) and Asia (China ,Hong Kong ). Through her travels she was further exposed to injustice, struggle and suffering caused by cultural and armed conflict. In her words travels have had “primary influence” on her work, both personal and political influence. Travels help her to understand the world differently, each trip reveals new knowledge and also “travel is the creative spark” of her work. Hassan’s artwork: Hassan has produced numerous mixed media installations in which she uses, for instance, existing texts, parables, found cultural artifacts and also personal objects. She says that the use of personal objects allows people to share a kind of intimate space but at the same time is not exclusive. Multidisciplinary work is a strategy for Hassan to deal with many different concepts and elements. Hassan’s work combines images & sounds (mural painting, watercolor, photography, video, audio) with objects (actual or reproduced) and texts . Hassan also points out that she feels a linkage between herself and other artists, who explore similar themes (e.g. Isabelle Eberhardt, Umm Kaltoum, Lillian Allen, Gerry Collin and Wyn Geleynse). She has also worked in collaboration with novelist Marwan Hassan and theorist Gayatri Spivak. A good illustration of her interdisciplinary and collaborative art is Hassan’s project Trespassers & Captives (1999), at the historical Eldon House in London , as she invited other artists and researchers to contribute to the exploration of the building’s possibilities. In her work Hassan creates a dialogue between past and present cultural references and elements. She explores the relationships between smaller personal histories and official accounts, the issues of representation and subjectivity and also the importance of language, texts and translations. Since 1970’s she has had numerous solo exhibitions and has also taken part in many group exhibitions both in Canada and worldwide, fore example in Trade Routes at the New Museum, New York; Le Milieu du Monde in Sete, France; and the End(s) of the Museum at the Fundacio Antoni Tapies of Barcelona, Spain. Numerous public collections have Jamelie Hassan’s works, such as The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, the London Regional Art and Historical Museum, London, Ontario, the Glenbow Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta, Dalhousie University Art Gallery, Halifax, N.S., the McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario, The Woodland Cultural Centre, Six Nations, Brantford, Ontario In addition, Hassan has executed commissioned works that can be found in the Ottawa Courthouse and Land Registry Office, the London Regional Cancer Clinic, Victoria Hospital ,London ,Ontario . In the end of this text, there is a link to the website of The Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art where a list of selected group and solo exhibitions of Jamelie Hassan can be found. The Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts Jamelie Hassan was awarded with the Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts in 2001. This award is “Canada’s foremost distinctions for excellence in the visual and media arts” and was created jointly by the Canada Council for the Arts and former Governor General Romeo LeBlanc in 1999. Six $15,000 awards are given annually for distinguished career achievement in fine arts, applied arts independent film and video, audio and new media. Also one $15,000 prize is awarded annually for “distinguished contributors to the visual and media arts through voluntarism, philanthropy, board governance or community outreach activities. Jury statement “Jamelie Hassan’s multi-media installations, photo-based and video work have been important features of the Canadian visual art milieu since the early 1970’s. Her work has focused on issues of cultural and personal identity, exclusion, displacement, language and communication. The complexity of her installation and multi-media work has attracted critical attention across Canada as well as internationally. Her work can be found in various public collections, including those of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. Hassan is also highly respected for her activism, curatorial work and contributions to the artist-run center movement in Canada. The Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts acknowledges her important contribution to the visual arts in Canada.” Other contributions Jamelie Hassan is not only a productive visual artist but also active lecturer, writer, independent curator and activist. She is a founder of two artist-run centres in her hometown London, Ontario, The Forest City Gallery (1973-1980) and the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990). Hassan has also been very active in the field of community art & heritage projects. She was an advisor in two community art projects that took place in London, Ontario; Open Air: bike, benches, canoes & beyond, public art project and a Gathering of Good Minds, First Nations’ cultural program. In addition, she has participated on advisory panels of artists, consultants and architects developing concepts and sites for public art and conducted research on the post-war reconstruction of Beirut and the building of the new library in Alexandria (Egypt). Hassan has also been a member of the board and served on advisory panels and art juries for the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Ontario Arts Council, and The Canada Council. She was part of the Museum/London advisory team that coordinated a conference in conjunction with the London exhibition in the spring 2003 of Greg Curnoe, Art & Stuff organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario. Hassan has coordinated numerous international programs and collective exhibitions (e.g. between Canada and India, Mexico, Cuba, Jordan and Sweden). The Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art |
