Sharon Vanorny
Faisal Abdu’Allah has not shied away from controversial topics since joining the UW-Madison faculty.
“I think my work has actually gotten better since I’ve been here,” says Abdu’Allah, 46, an associate professor of printmaking since 2014 and one of the rising stars in the UW-Madison art department.
The London transplant’s work in Madison has addressed the city’s racial divide and the fatal shooting of 19-year-old African American Tony Robinson by a white Madison police officer in March 2015.
“There is a level of bravery in the work that I don’t think was there before. I’m able to challenge myself in knowing that I’m communicating to a completely different audience in the Midwest,” says Abdu’Allah, whose work often challenges stereotypes. “People are under the impression that because me and somebody else share the same skin tone, we share the same philosophy, and that’s not the case. There are many people out there who do not in any way look like me, yet we share the same spirit and same moral compass — almost like brothers from another mother.”
He also has a work in the upcoming Art Department Faculty Quadrennial Exhibition — a once-every-four-years event at the Chazen Museum of Art that has been a UW tradition since 1974.
Abdu’Allah’s piece in the exhibit features the story of the 1921 race riots in Tulsa, Okla., etched in white on a discarded classroom blackboard and featuring a stunning final sentence that suggests there was more to the riots than previously reported.
“Faisal is giving people access to art they might not otherwise experience,” says Russell Panczenko, longtime director of the Chazen. “He’s extremely intelligent and very articulate. When you have somebody who, in addition to creating high-level work, also has the ability to rationally communicate about it, that’s a big plus.”
The artist’s best-known work locally is probably “Squad: The Calling of the Common Hero,” which was on display at the Chazen for two months in 2015. Developed collaboratively with four of his UW-Madison students and an art print studio in Oakland, Calif., he created 10-foot-tall portraits of the students, along with seven other individuals chosen by Abdu’Allah and his students (including members of Madison’s Black Lives Matter movement).
“Squad” was meant to “articulate the belief that everyone is capable of being extraordinary,” according to the 62-page book that accompanied the exhibition.
Abdu’Allah also collected samples of participants’ hair and blended them into a powder that he used to create smaller silkscreen portraits of them.
The human hair element of the “Squad” project was critical. “Essentially, it was bringing their DNA, their identity, into the work,” says Abdu’Allah, who also happens to be a barber. “Our hair carries a trace of who we are, and it is extremely political. In the history of post-colonialism, the straighter your hair was, the higher up on the chain of respect you were.”
Abdu’Allah began cutting hair when he was a student in London, and he trained as a barber while an exchange student in Boston. He’s even turned the act into a piece of performance art called “Live Salon,” where he and an audience member wear microphones that capture the conversation that takes place while Abdu’Allah cuts that person’s hair.
But he laughs when asked if he holds a barbering license. “No,” he says. “I just invent as I go along. Cutting hair is like jazz for me.”
Abdu’Allah was born Paul Duffus and grew up in a Pentecostal family before becoming a Muslim in 1991 and changing his name. Some of his most compelling works are rooted in religion. For example, he has depicted Jesus Christ’s Last Supper with disciples dressed as gang members and Muslims.
Although he lives in Madison, his wife and three children — ages 10, 12 and 21 — still reside in London but plan to relocate here soon.
Despite Madison’s lack of diversity in the arts, Abdu’Allah says he likes it here. “Back when I was a student, I was the only black face in the class,” he says. “When I traveled extensively, I was the only person in the room who looked like me. Ninety percent of my circle in my field never looked like me. If that was going to be problem for me, then I would not have gone into the arts.”
In addition to his role on campus, Abdu’Allah is also undertaking a project with teens from underserved neighborhoods under the umbrella of The Bubbler, a creative extension of the Madison Public Library. The students are working with Abdu’Allah in his studio to create a public art piece that will be on display in the library beginning in May.
“Young people’s faces are always stuck in an iPhone,” Abdu’Allah says. “They don’t connect, they’re not present. I think it’s very important that they have a voice and that we nurture their creativity. How do we get young people into that creative space and make them realize that the arts are the foundation for everything? Design, architecture, fashion. Everything that you see and touch is from the hand of an artist.”
Abdu’Allah will speak March 15, 12:30-1:10 p.m., at the Chazen Museum on his work in the Quadrennial Exhibition, which runs through April 17 in the Pleasant T. Rowland and Leslie and Johanna Garfield galleries.
