Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s artistic practice plays with the English language, exploring that space between what is immediately intelligible and what is deliberately opaque. Displayed on gallery walls and in public spaces alike, her graphically driven artworks present words as an invitation to engage, fostering collaboration between maker and viewer in the creation of meaning. Directed by Carrie Hawks for the long–running PBS series Art21, the film takes us inside Rasheed’s Brooklyn studio to intimately observe the artist at work and highlight the centrality of text to her process. Hawk’s filmmaking approach mirrors the artist’s interest in recognizing the role of the viewer and reflects on the ways we can learn to closely read our own lives and the lives of others.  ER 

Filmmaker Q&A available

Closed captioning available