Sherman Gallery at Boston University presents Moroccan artist’s solo exhibition — Opening September 13
Boston, MA – The School of Visual Arts at the College of Fine Arts at Boston University is pround to present Hamid Kachmar: Reviving the Ancient Tifinagh Script, recent paintings and mixed works — September 13– October 20.
Hamid Kachmar: Reviving the Ancient Tifinagh Script
Dates and Events: Friday, September 6 – Sunday, October 20, 2013
Opening Reception: Friday, September 13, 5:30–7:30pm
Location: Sherman Gallery (775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston)
Exhibition and Gallery Events are Free and Open to the Public
In Reviving the Ancient Tifinagh Script, Kachmar renders the ancient Amazigh script, Tifinagh, into textual and visual compositions that represent a struggle for identity, cultural survival, and self-conception. For centuries, the Tifinagh script has been politically suppressed; painted out of Amazigh people’s collective consciousness. For Hamid and many other cultural activists of his generation, Tifinagh represents not just the ancient script of a still widely spoken indigenous language, but also a symbol of the struggle for cultural survival.
Kachmar’s materials and techniques evoke metaphors, moods, and expressions of his home country and his experiences abroad. Hamid uses the Tifinagh script and Amazigh motifs in written, painted, carved, and woven compositions that are sometimes overtly textual and sometimes purely visual without any semantic meanings. The artist states,
“Tifinagh script has been omnipresent in my work for more than two decades. It is a very intimate, loyal, and existential relationship that has linked the script of my mother tongue, Tamazigh, and me; a relationship that began at age thirteen when I first knew that my Amazigh “Berber” language had a script of its own.”
The exhibition is curated by Cynthia Becker, Associate Professor of Art History, in Boston University’s Department of History of Art and Architecture and presented as part of Boston University’s African Studies Center 60th Anniversary celebration.
About Hamid Kachmar
Hamid Kachmar is a Moroccan born artist of indigenous Berber ancestry. He received his BA from Meknes University in Morocco in 1995 and his MFA from Howard University in 2006. For the past twenty years, Kachmar’s works have been exhibited in Washington, D.C., Virginia, New York, Oregon, New England, and North Carolina, along with exhibitions in France, Spain, and Morocco. He has been the recipient of several awards from Howard University where he lectures on experimental studio and mixed media.