Q&A with Nabila Alibhai: Colour In Faith
June 5, 2016
How did this collaboration with Art @ The Bus come about? Deciding to paint the big red bus yellow? What’s the thinking behind it, as Colour in Faith focuses on places of worship?
Colour in Faith is about about creating a movement toward pluralism through art. Although Colour in Faith has focused primarily on houses of worship, doing something in the center of Nairobi’s creative hub with conveners of creativity makes total sense with our vision! Art @ The Bus is becoming more central within Nairobi’s cultural scene as a place that brings together people of all races, incomes, religions etc.
The bus itself is a fantastic metaphor for the mobility of culture and we were thrilled to be invited to paint the bus yellow! Over the next month we’ll be collaborating on a host of events that speak to art and change-making… panels, poetry jams, yellow interactions.
How has your journey with Colour in Faith been like so far, especially in Africa?
It’s been equally inspiring and challenging. We were thrilled to find that the message of the project made sense to a lot of people. In the Kenyan context, where different religions have co-existed and enjoyed one another for decades, we’ve found that there is a lot of pain and paralysis from our experience of terrorism and the rising threat of fundamentalism.
With the elections coming up in 2017, people are also wary of religion being manipulated for political gains. The idea of visually communicating love, faith in common humanity and unity, has had widespread appeal!
More at the sources:
- upnairobi.com/2016/06/05/q-a-with-nabila-alibhai-colour-in-faith-multiculturalism/
- colourinfaith.com
- colourinfaith.com/?p=386
- anglicannews.org/news/2016/08/kenyan-churches-join-colour-in-faith-project.aspx
- huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-kenyas-houses-of-worship-are-getting-a-yellow-makeover_us
Related: Ismaili Muslim Artists
Ismailimail 