Visual art / The Hurt Business, by Omar Musa. At Megalo Print Studio, Kingston. Until April 4. Reviewed by ROB KENNEDY.
Omar Musa’s new exhibition of lithographs and woodcuts at Megalo Print Studio, The Hurt Business, asks: who gets to sanction violence? But more importantly, who says stop?
Several artists tackle political, environmental and social issues, but few do it across visual art, literature and music as Musa does. Eco-activism, capitalism critique, cultural diasporas, identity issues, and colonial/indigenous narratives are addressed by Musa through his art.
On the opening night, artistic director and CEO of the Megalo Print Studio, Clare Jackson introduced Musa by asking, who does Omar Musa think he is? This could sum up his cross-art creations and his voice, which relentlessly screams out for change and justice.
In all the artworks on display in this exhibition, the language, the feelings and the sentiments are immediately apparent. They are poetic, forthright and penetrating. Whether it’s text, visual art or poetry, Musa lets his concerns do the talking. The environment, big business or social customs and destruction are graphic in more than just the visual sense.
He reveals a strong sense of injustice and loneliness in several works. There’s a cry for a better world with better people. While most of us are hypnotised by technology and the media, Musa is out there, pounding at the door for change. But he’s not alone, the thinking world is with him.
Images of desperate people are depicted; those who have to treat the earth not how they wish to survive. In all the works there’s a sense of survival going on and the ever-present questions, who can help us? How can we help ourselves?
There’s a lot of hurt in The Hurt Business. There is memory, separation and togetherness in a world of dissonance. Then there is art like this, that in Musa’s words, is hopefully beautiful.
If there’s one sentence to sum up Musa’s art, it is, we feel it, because he lives it.
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