ARTWORK DESCRIPTION

The film represents a combination of visual art and music and is a collaboration of two artists, Narmin Kassam and Arif Jinha.

“Birth” (2021) - Narmin Kassam
Acrylic and mixed media on wood panel
In the art piece, Buddha is represented in feminine form, highlighting the natural maternal spirit. The three turtles, symbols drawn from a Buddhist sutra, search for spiritual enlightenment. The depth of water contrasting with iridescence represents the unseen and the light we seek. As a new birth is taken, the child enters this world, just as butterflies emerge from their chrysalis, letting go of attachments to seek Nirvana.

“AYA” (2005) - Arif Jinha
Arif Jinha describes the song as a spontaneous creation. The song’s creatorhad bought an ordinary ukelele from his friend and began exploring it. So this is not how a ukelele is typically played! His daughter was in utero at the time. Through the pregnancy and even while she was coming through the birth canal he was playing this song! To him, it is a song of innocence, joy and creative play. His daughter's name Aya has many meanings for him, but the one he comes back to most is "I am That which I create myself to Be."

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

NARMIN KASSAM
Narmin Kassam (née Rahemtulla) migrated as an infant from Uganda to Vancouver in the early 1970s. She is self-taught and from early in life, visual art has been Narmin’s passion. She engages in visual art as a means of creative expression, personal search and finding meaning. Inspired by Ismail Gulji, Claude Monet and Gordon Harrison, she paints with an impressionistic style and has evolved into using mixed media on canvas. She employs various techniques, materials and colour choices, each with a symbolic purpose. She showcased pieces at the 2018 Ottawa Jubilee Arts Festival and was successful in advancing her work to the 2018 National Jubilee Arts Festival in the Mixed Media category, including leading the design and execution of two large-scale collaborative murals. Narmin was also a finalist in the 2016 Aga Khan Foundation Canada Together Art Contest. Her collection is housed by those with whom she is personally and spiritually connected and has exhibited paintings at the Manotik Art Gallery (Ottawa).
Website: https://www.narminkassamart.com
Instagram: #narminkassamart

ARIF JINHA
Arif Jinha is a community artist with a broad network in Ottawa. He has training in Indian Classical vocal and sitar, and he is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, poet and writer. Born in Cheltenham, the United Kingdom in 1975 to a Mom of British background and an Ugandan Muslim Dad, Arif’s family immigrated to Canada a year later. After studying saxophone in high school, Arif picked up his Mom’s guitar at the age of 16 and began his journey with strings and songwriting. By 1995 he had written a handful of songs and made his first recordings on a four-track. It wasn’t until 2012 that he released a professional album in collaboration with Mudshark Audio and Andrew (producer) and Michael Brittain (drummer). In the late 1990s, Arif met Hardeep Buckshi and studied sitar and Indian classical for several years. In 2014, he received a grant from the Ontario Arts Council to continue studying Indian Classical vocal and sitar, this time with Mushfiq Hashemi. This influence can be heard on the album. Arif is working on his second album now, and during the pandemic, he released a single “Staying Home” which was featured in the 2020 Virtual Art Exhibit (2018 Jubilee Arts Ottawa-KingstonThrowback)
Arif Jinha on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ayabab
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/arif-jinha
Ontario Independent Music Archive - https://ontarioindependentmusicarchive.ca/en/artist/arif-jinha
You can also find Arif’s work on Spotify, Youtube and most online platforms.