{"object":[{"sourceId":{"label":"Source ID","value":"9920"},"creditline":{"label":"Credit Line","value":"Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art (Programmatic Acquisition)"},"invno":{"label":"Object number","value":"37.12.1-2"},"description":{"label":"Description","value":"This two-part mural represents a verse from a work by Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008). A poem originally written in Arabic, Shehab has interpreted the title and content of the text as a challenge to power\u2014The Penultimate Address of the \u201cRed Indian\" in Front of the White Man (1992)\u2014and selected this evocative phrase for her piece: \u201cMy people will return as air and light and water.\u201d The mural uses an artist-created script that has both pixelated and added figurative roots to 10th-century floriated Kufic calligraphy to make a site-specific commentary about colonization, displacement, and loss \u2013 of land, people, and identity. My People speaks to how Shangri La is the intersection of cultural aesthetics and a place to explore political concerns across indigenous contexts. Shehab\u2019s inventive and energetic interpretation of Arabic epigraphy richly illustrates the ways that art can be a space for marginalized voices.A graphic designer as well as an Islamic art historian, Shehab\u2019s study of the development of Arabic scripts has deeply informed the creation of the lettering for this mural. Most commonly, floriated Kufic has leaf-life vegetation erupting from the \u201cstems\u201d of the letters. Here, Shehab has chosen to invert this tradition and create roots for the letters in lieu of leaves or flowers, quite literally embedding the letters - and their associated meanings - into the \u201csoil\u201d of Honolulu. Her pixellation of the letters has a lightening effect on the somber and moving message, respectfully but playfully encouraging the viewer to dwell longer on the artwork and to \u201cassemble\u201d the image visually - she invites us to look, and to keep looking.This bold artwork is site-specific not only for Honolulu, but also for Shangri La: it is a conscious welcome to our visitors, as well as a visual statement of the unique conflation of lands and identities represented within our museum and our landscapes."},"medium":{"label":"Medium","value":"Acrylic and Latex on Wood"},"onview":{"label":"On View","value":"1"},"title":{"label":"Title","value":"My People"},"classification":{"label":"Classifications","value":"Paintings"},"primaryMedia":{"value":"http://collection.shangrilahawaii.org/internal/media/dispatcher/59775/full"},"depth":{"label":"Depth","value":["0E-10","0E-10"]},"displayDate":{"label":"Date","value":"2018"},"width":{"label":"Width","value":["701.2195121951","762.1951219512"]},"id":{"label":"Id","value":"165156"},"dimensions":{"label":"Dimensions","value":"Overall (Left): 23 × 7 (701.2 × 213.4cm)Overall (Right): 25 × 7 (762.2 × 213.4cm)"},"height":{"label":"Height","value":["213.4146341463","213.4146341463"]}}]}