Hiba Abdallah’s neon sculpture lights up McMaster
September 25, 2020
New public art for a bright and engaged McMaster community
A new neon sculpture by Hiba Abdallah is lighting up the McMaster Museum of Art.
Commissioned and conceived in 2019, Abdallah’s white neon sculpture has now been installed above the museum entrance. As is typical of her recent practice, the artist uses text as a jumping off point for questions, reflection, and discussion about specific, surrounding communities. In this case, her glowing, cursive text reads, “we remain profoundly and infinitely connected.”
Abdallah describes this sculpture:
“The McMaster Museum of Art is a beacon of engagement and learning, both on campus and with the public at large. When thinking about the role this institution holds in the community, I wanted to create a statement that emphasizes human connectivity as a reciprocal feedback loop.”
“The text is simple yet evocative of the complex nature of connection, as evidenced in the very subjects studied on campus, from quantum physics to political science to visual art to biochemistry. My hope is for this piece to function as a welcoming prompt when entering the museum during the day, and a poetic declaration of unity at night.”
The McMaster Museum of Art is proud to unveil Hiba Abdallah’s sculpture and a special Artist in Conversation video on September 25 for the launch of Ontario Culture Days.
This is one of two commissions by Abdallah supported by the McMaster Museum of Art. The first, her giant wall mural In Retrospect, was presented as part of Hamilton Supercrawl 2019 and has remained on view on James Street South for the last year. The eerily prescient text read, “Everything is much more connected than we think.”
Hiba Abdallah is an artist and organizer who frequently works with others. Her projects are embedded in social practice and often use text as a way of exploring topics of locality and civic agency. Abdallah received her BFA from the University of Windsor in 2012 and MFA from the University of Guelph in 2017. Recent exhibitions and public projects include “Everything I Wanted to Tell You” for Nuit Blanche Scarborough, “Neighbourhood Trust” with Lakeshore Arts and Myseum Toronto, “It can only be this place” at the Doris McCarthy Gallery, “Rehearsing Disagreement” for the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, and “A List of Antagonisms” at Centre[3] in Hamilton.
The Museum of Art is proud to bring Hiba Abdallah’s work to McMaster University campus and to foster, literally, a brighter world.
Hiba Abdallah at Supercrawl:
https://museum.mcmaster.ca/about/news/museum-supports-art-at-supercrawl/
Learn more about HibaAbdallah: http://hibaabdallah.com/
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