Exploring materials and their origins play an active role in Umar’s practice. He works with sculpture, textiles, painting, ceramics, graphics, jewellery, photography, and performance — in a continuous search for the types of materials that are best suited to tell a specific story.
The starting point for the exhibition is the artist’s personal background and experience of growing up between the poles of two different denominations of Islam. Thus, the exhibition reflects the area of tension between faith and doubt, freedom and restriction. Umar presents an installation consisting of 99 sculptural prayer beads in different materials and formats, where each sculpture corresponds to a prayer. Umar has for a long time collected commercial tourist souvenirs from African and Asian countries which are made from such materials as hardwood, bone, hide, and ebony. The import of these artefacts to Norway and Europe, which has been induced by missionaries as well as tourism, has resulted in catastrophic consequences for natural resources in their countries of origin. Umar deconstructs and processes these objects to create sculptures that express a personal, more authentic narrative.
Most of the 99 sculptures are supported by a cast of the artist’s hand. The various gestures imitate prayer movements and point to how the hand is the subject of political and religious control. At the same time, the hand also gives associations to its potential for creation and its capacity to revolt and protest: the hand takes the power back to itself.
The 99th bead is a new, monumental embroidery.
The exhibition is a continuation of the artist’s ongoing and growing project Prayer Beads, which has previously been shown at Kraft i Bergen, Sandefjord Art Association and Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium. Umar aims to create a total of one thousand sculptural prayer beads in various techniques and formats.
Ahmed Umar (b. 1988) is a cross-disciplinary artist who lives and works in Oslo. In 2016 he completed his Master of Fine Arts in medium- and material-based art at the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Through his art and political activism, he discusses the silencing, demonizing, and compromising of queer lives, especially those with a Muslim background, in both a Sudanese and international context.
Umar’s works have been exhibited by several art institutions in Norway as well as The Biennale of Sydney. They have been acquired by amongst others The National Museum, Drammens Museum, and the City of Oslo Art Collection. In addition to his solo exhibition at Kunstnernes Hus, in 2023 Umar’s work is shown at the Trondheim Kunstmuseum in connection with his nomination for the Lorck Schive art prize.
