ARTWORK DESCRIPTION
The ApARTogether Showcase had the artist thinking of a few themes. One was a longing to send and receive mail as a way to connect with others during the pandemic. One is a longing to connect with the past and speak to his grandparents – wonderful people who he never really met. He was also thinking about his identity and relationship with Canada. About colonialism and their role as settlers in this messy, unjust world. And about who decides what (and who) goes on stamps. He used both analog and digital tools to create these stamps, built from a painting of his hand reaching out and then integrated with a photograph of his grandmother in Tanzania.
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Aquil Virani is an award-winning visual artist who blurs the line between art and activism, often integrating public participation into his socially-conscious art projects. He is the 2021 Artist-in-Residence at the Canadian Museum of Immigration. You can learn more about his work at aquil.ca.
As curator Celine Le Merlus of the Stewart Hall Art Gallery explains, “his approach, which aims not simply to assert a personal point of view on a pressing social issue, but also to facilitate opportunities for others to express themselves freely – to speak and be heard – is characteristic of all of Aquil’s work.”
Virani’s work has been supported financially by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council and the City of Ottawa, in addition to the Silk Road Institute, the Michaelle Jean Foundation, the International Centre of Art for Social Change, TakingITGlobal and the Government of Canada.
