Oil and acrylic on canvas.
36x30"
****Work Not For Sale (NFS)*****
"Decolonizing Hummingbirds through a UV Lens" visually decolonizes the representation of hummingbirds by giving humans a view into their UV world unrestricted by borders. The colonial species illustrator, John James Audubon, would depict Ruby-throated hummingbirds in a large group, male and female, feeding from the same central flower with a decontextualized white background. Yet, this is an unrealistic representation of hummingbirds, who are territorial and habitual in their rotations between flowers, not letting any other hummingbird, even their juvenile, feed with them. Thus, "Decolonizing Hummingbirds through a UV Lens" has a single female Ruby-throated Hummingbird, central within the composition; Audubon’s depiction of intermingling hummingbirds is reduced to outlines to signify their inaccuracy. The background is a recreation of Tauba Auerbach’s Map Projection I, where land stretches around the periphery of the globe with Africa at a realistically large scale. Flowers native to North America–like bee balm–and South America–hibiscus–represent Ruby-throated hummingbirds’ places of migration. Window panels overlapping with flowers reveal how hummingbirds see the world in UV light due to a fourth ultraviolet cone in their eyes with a drop of coloured oil that makes red hues brighter and blue less visible. However, this accounts for windows being nearly invisible to birds; initiatives in Toronto are making windows sensitive to UV light to prevent bird collisions.
Hafsa Murtaza is an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, attending the Art and Art History program offered jointly with Sheridan College. She explores traditional painting and print media alongside unconventional watercolour monoprints, textile-based work and the use of natural materials. Hafsa bases her work on Islamic philosophy, manifesting Islamic ideologies in her practice.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Amidst a Western Neoliberal, globalized society, individuals lose a sense of individuality and attachment to Place. Islamic philosophy proposes a nuanced and effective solution to restore a strong sense of Identity by bringing to light the interconnections between humans, the environment and the Divine. I reference Mughal manuscript paintings, Quranic verses that personify humans as the land, and cultural textile motifs in my multi-media work to explore how an Islamic way of life unites diverse cultures, traditions and places. This exploration led me to critique colonial and post-colonial ideologies that seek to divide borders, people and cultures. My paintings decolonize representations of marginal identities by critiquing colonial species illustrations and colonial fantasy stories of the Mughal Empire, using contorted maps, UV filters and double-portraits to complicate how we see the world.
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