Art Review: In Progress By Yusef Alahmad

First of all, the work of art that most appealed to me was the digital print on maple wood by Yusef Alahmad. I was drawn to this work because of all the colors on the skateboards and because the designs on them are very unique. The skateboards had different styles, they either had geometric shapes or flowers, they were really colorful. This work was created to show that two cultures, Islamic and Arab cultures, can blend seamlessly. It shows that this is the meaning by connecting the shapes and flowers on the skateboard, they are not separated. They unite the elements of counterculture with the old tradition of Islamic design. In the skateboards, they are combined to show that contradictions are a fact of life. The time period these skateboards

I was drawn to this work as well because as I read the information on it, it said that this work included fabric, salt water from the Great Salt Lake, and salt. I was surprised to see that it included salt water from the Great Salt Lake, if it just included regular water I wouldn’t have been amazed as much because the Great Salt Lake is far from where I live. Seeing that there was salt all over the floor in the room was amazing because it was different, I didn’t expect to see something like it. This room was created as a maze, which led you to take the right path. When I saw it I believed that if you don’t take the right path you’re going to have a wall as an obstacle. On the fabric there was art created with salt, which was trying to send a message that salt is within our bodies and around the world. Before actually reading the description, I thought it was created to show that although there are “salty” obstacles in life, you can get through them. After reading about it, I understood that it was created to show how too much salt threatens your survival and that it surrounds us. It said that “the crystallized salt creates a binary between the organic growth of salt and the synthetically manufactured fabric. The fluidity of the water in a sense represents the spiritual body and salt reflecting the physical body. This process dissolves down salt into

I was drawn to this piece of work because it was amazing how it was only created out of candy wrappers. I think the artist was trying to send a message that said that we usually don’t give value to the things that are disposed and she was trying to tell us that those things can create art and should be valued. When I saw this piece of artwork, I actually ended up thinking about my childhood because I would eat some of the candy from which she used. Mentos wrappers, Kit Kat foils, and Smarties boxes represent “everyday social behaviors or historically iconic masterpieces traditionally woven into our sense of global culture.” I actually didn’t see how it showed this, but I really liked this piece of artwork. It really showed that the disposable can be used in a creative