ArtistAmare Selfu

Yours and Mine

Date2019

MediumAcrylic on canvas

Dimensions36 × 36 in. (91.4 × 91.4 cm) Framed Size: 40 × 40 in. (101.6 × 101.6 cm)

Credit LineDC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Art Bank Collection

Object numberDCCAH2021.036

ClassificationsPaintings

Locations

Rental Housing Commission (DHCD) (441 4th Street, NW 1140B N)

DescriptionFor Amare Selfu, lines are both an end and a beginning of defining one’s identity in a place. The differentiation between us and them, ours and theirs, takes place in the physical and non-physical borders and in the liminal zone between here and there. Selfu is drawn to borderlines because they are the transformational spaces where opposites meet and are altered into another space, both physically and metaphorically. This inspires him to explore how displacement and the process of assimilating oneself to a foreign environment or culture impact the formation of a new identity.