Together, the eleven members of Squad
represent boldness and resilience in
their advocacy, attributes, and abilities.
and cannot be divulged. Even though the faces of
the individuals come to life via backlighting, they
have no voice. Thus, the viewer is asked to trust
in the presence of a more complex identity and
representation of the figures of Adeve than initially
meets the eye.
The third stage of the process of selection removes
a large portion of artistic control commanding the
production of the work. Abdu’Allah demonstrates
this stage in his first installment of Squad, a project
realized in an advanced art history course in the
spring of 2015 taught by the artist in his position
as the Henry John Drewal Visiting Professor of
African & Diaspora Arts at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison. Squad looks at the dormant
qualities and hidden sides within each person that
emerge through various means. The piece consists
of eleven larger-than-life photographs of individuals who on the outside may look ordinary, but in
reality are quite extraordinary.
On the first day of class Abdu’Allah was greeted by
four students, each with diverse backgrounds and
interests. United by their passion for the course,
Lynne Harper, Mikayla Lofton, Thomas Marren,
and Anais Reyes joined forces to create the
curatorial team for the work Squad. Throughout
the semester, the curatorial team grappled with the
challenging task of curating a museum exhibition
from its conception, working with their professor
as the exhibiting artist. Several weeks into the
semester, Abdu’Allah realized that he wanted these
four student curators to be subjects of his project.
Working with the theme of bravery in the act of
self-selection, Squad elevates the common, everyday
figure to the rare and remarkable. The original
four subjects were asked to pick a counterpart who,
in their absence, would embody their passions and
ultimately stand up for their beliefs and efforts.
These counterparts also reflect those individuals
who the original members of Squad would bring
to battle with them in order to tackle challenges
together. Harper, Lofton, Marren, and Reyes
came to Abdu’Allah with their complements and
Squad grew to eight members. The team together
chose from the community three additional Squad
members who represented self-selected bravery.
Abdu’Allah desired a group of eleven because of
his numerical superstitions about sports teams.
When Squad is considered in that light one begins
to question where the arena is and what the game
is. Is Squad playing a football match—or are they
playing the game of humankind?
Together, the eleven members of Squad represent
boldness and resilience in their advocacy, attributes, and abilities. Squad articulates the belief that
everyone is capable of being extraordinary; more-
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