b'The Restless LinePerhaps these hybrids remind us of the curiosities evoked in folk literature,where the inhabitants of strange lands wear their faces on their chests and usea straw hut as a head. We might glimpse animals lurking among the humans: aram, a daft camel, or even a pantomime horse. Often the figures seem about toadopt a new identity, feigning to be farmyard livestock, or some familiar bird.Some figures are left exposed, isolated against blankness. Others proliferateand squeeze into every last inch of the sheet, twisting acrobatically under thepressure of releasing fresh arrangements. A sad face is rare, for these gym-nasts and dancers seem generally happy, their purpose being to establish a frag-ile community as an alternative to daily discomfort and loneliness.Rashidi doodles to a purpose, drawing close to something new and wonderful inthe creative act and comforting himself with the knowledge that he alone canfully embrace and savour it all. In a sense, he is depicting himself, and hissketcheslittle more than litter to the casual glanceare tokens of an insightinto the mechanisms of desire and poetic transcendence. The loops and curls onthe paper delineate an unreal yet reassuring territory. One drawing epitomizesthe artists urge to establish a personal space he can call home: an elegant pi-geon comes to rest upon virgin paper, a tiny cottage nestling in its feathers.g a alOctober 201210'