The Greater Common Good

UCSB Library is pleased to present The Greater Common Good, a new work by Sa’dia Rehman in charcoal, graphite, ink, carbon paper, silver leaf, and black thread. The event will be held at the Art and Architecture section in the UCSB Library.

In her art practice, Sa’dia Rehman pulls apart and puts together family photographs, historical records, and mass media. She draws on Islamic art and architecture, and the contemporary art of Asian and African diasporas, to situate her individual history within larger historical processes.

The Greater Common Good traces connections between the remains of the Tarbela Dam and the Mission Dam across generations and geographies. Composed of small works on paper that can be read individually and together, Rehman invites viewers into a conversation. Layers of ink are stretched, paper is cut, and carbon is crinkled with silver leaf—evoking bodies of land and water, familial and religious figures, desire lines, and architectural forms. The title references an essay by Arundhati Roy, which opposes dam-building projects that uproot and exploit Indigenous and Dalit communities.

More information here: https://www.library.ucsb.edu/events-exhibitions/greater-common-good