<p dir="ltr">The paint filling in the sketched lines on an alley wall behind the Phillips Collection couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time.</p> <p dir="ltr">The artists who stood on scaffolding and ladders, reaching to the highest portions of the mural with bright yellow, red and orange paint on Oct. 23 <a href="https://blogs.rollcall.com/after-dark/what-to-do-in-d-c-s-in-between-times/">had come from across the Atlantic to decorate the wall</a>. For them, artistic expression is necessarily political, and having their culture represented on a wall in the district is an important means of connecting the people of the United States with the people of Senegal, West Africa.</p> <p dir="ltr">“The idea of doing this work here … opens people’s minds to the fact that there are artists in Senegal,” said Muhsana Ali, an artist who has lived in Senegal for 13 years, though was born in the United States. “In general, people don’t know a lot about Africa. … Doing this kind of work here gives people the opportunity to see them as real people.”</p> <!-- wp:image {"align":"center"} --><div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="https://cdn.videos.rollcall.com/blogs/sites/8/2014/10/20141023_132257.jpg?w=1024" alt="(Clark Mindock / CQ Roll Call)" /><figcaption>(Clark Mindock / CQ Roll Call)</figcaption></figure></div><!-- /wp:image --> <p dir="ltr">Sheep peer out from the mural — an animal that is sacrificed during religious traditions in Senegal. A figure carries a fish with a spiked head — perhaps a representation of a symbol found on the West African CFA Franc, the currency in Senegal, and the fishing industry.</p> <p dir="ltr">They are images you don’t see on the news today when you hear about West Africa.</p> <p dir="ltr">“I’ve heard a lot of people saying that the air is heavily charged with fear around Ebola,” Ali said. “This kind of lessens the fear, I think.” <a href="https://rollcall.com/2014/10/31/senegal-represents-at-phillips-collection/#more-183423" class="more-link"><span aria-label="Continue reading Senegal Represents at Phillips Collection">(more…)</span></a></p>
