Artist: Halima Afi Cassells
Singularity #4: P(s)alms
Collage
28" x 28"
ABOUT THE ARTIST:
Halima Afi Cassells (b. 1981) is an award-winning interdisciplinary community-engaged artist, mom of three, avid gardener, with deep roots in Waawiiyaataanong/ Detroit, MI. Born into a creative family, her parents photographed her unsolicited murals and fashions as a kid, encouraging her exploration. Community is the heart of her work. She credits gardening as inspiring her move away from painting to a practice where she aspires to use natural, found, and up-cycled materials and processes that lend to the thriving of all (human and non-human) communities.
Halima continues to explore relationship-building, and the notions of freedom and work, value and disposability in a participatory context through projects like the Free Market of Detroit, Traveling Indigo Vat, Tables and Thrones series, and collective collage-making.
Awarded the 2023 Kresge Arts in Detroit fellowship for interdisciplinary art, Cassells continually dives down rabbit holes seeking to understand the interconnectedness of systems and self. A self-guided student of anthropology, macroeconomics, British imperialism and common law, global corporatism, climate crisis, and psychology; she uses her art with the intent of returning to a 'right relationship.' She has also spearheaded many processes that uplift cultural capital from often-exploited communities and creates in a collaborative context. She has been awarded grants from: Panta Rhea Foundation, BulkSpace, WDET, Art Matters, Culture Source, Knight Foundation Arts Challenge, Artplace America, and Seed+Bloom Detroit. In addition to Detroit, her work has been featured in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Oakland CA, Oaxaca, Berlin, Copenhagen, Bogota, and Harare.
Please note: All artworks will remain on display through February 28th after which purchased works will be available for pick up at BasBlue (unless alternate arrangements have been made). For questions contact: info@basblue.us