I CURATE Bisa Butler
Tell your world about this one ↓
"I CURATE"
- Recommendations by: The Matrix
This Node is in Respect of Whom?
- Name: Bisa Butler
- City/Place: Newark, New Jersey
- Country: United States
Life & Work
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Bio:
In my work I am telling the story— The African American side— of this American life. History is the story of men and women but the narrative is controlled by those who hold the pen.
My community has been marginalized for hundreds of years. While we have been right beside our white counterparts experiencing and creating history our contributions and very perspectives have been ignored, unrecorded and lost. Only a few years ago that it was acknowledged that the white house was built by slaves. Right there in the seat of power of our country, African Americans were creating and contributing but who knew who these people were and what their names were. These unacknowledged African Americans had stories, families although they were not considered or treated as equals.
My subjects are African Americans from ordinary walks of life who who may have sat for a formal family portrait or may have been documented by a passing photographer.
These unknown stories fascinate me. I feel these people; I know these stories because I have grown up with them my whole life. I know about my grandmother’s birth at home in Plaquemine Parish, Louisiana; I know about my Aunt Sheila whose family left Mississippi for Chicago in the 1940s; I know about my own father who left Ghana in 1960 with a scholarship to study in the United States and had a suitcase with one shirt and one pair of pants in it. I know the pride in hard work and the dignity of these people because they are my people. I can imagine their lives because they are me and I am them. I grew up listening to the tales of my elders and I heard about what it felt like to be cold and hungry but we still have love and family.
I have a degree from Howard University, a Historically Black University in Washington D.C that was founded when America was segregated by race. Education was looked at as a pathway to a brighter future . The historically black colleges educated the first doctors, lawyers and professionals in this country and to this day graduate more African American professionals than any of the other colleges in this country. It is at Howard that I was taught by the AfriCOBRA ( The African Commune of Bad and Relevant Artists) founders like Jeff Donaldson who was my Dean of Fine Arts, and Frank Smith and Wadswoth Jarell who were professors. We were taught to be proud of our African Heritage and to always present our people in a positive light. They taught us that we had a responsibility to document and correct the misinformation that had been told about our people, and about Africa. We were to use our art as a tool to tell our side of the story to the masses and the mainstream.
I quilt because this was the technique that was taught to me at home. I could sew before I ever painted on a canvas. My mother and grandmother while not quilters sewed garments almost every day. African Americans have been quilting since we were brought to this country and needed to keep warm. Enslaved people were not given large pieces of fabric and had to make do with the scraps of cloth that were left after clothing wore out. With these bits of cloth African American quilts displayed . My own pieces are reminiscent of this tradition but I use African fabrics from my father’s homeland of Ghana, batiks from Nigeria, and prints from South Africa. My subjects are adorned with and made up of the cloth of our ancestors. If these visages are to be recreated and seen for the first time in a century I want them to have their African ancestry back, I want them to take their rightful place in American history. I want the viewer to see the subjects as I see them.
I feel driven to tell my side of the story---that African Americans have a lot to be proud of; that we take care and love our children; that we believe in family; we value education; we work hard and we belong here. Every human being is equal and I hope people see that when they view my work. A billionaire has no more or no less value than someone who sweeps floors. We are all in this together and until we know both sides of the story, our history will be incomplete.
I hope people view my work and feel the value and equality of all people. By presenting all of my figures with a richness and dignity they deserve whether they are from a humble background or the upper classes. All of my pieces are done in life scale to invite the viewer to engage in a dialogue— the figures all look the viewers directly in their eyes.
I am inviting a reimagining and a contemporary dialogue about age old issues that are still problematic in our culture through the comforting embracing medium of the quilt. I am expressing what I believe; the equal value of all humans.
Contact Information
- Email: bisabutlerart@gmail.com
- Telephone: 862-930-6878
Media & Markets
- ▶ Twitter: bisabutler
- ▶ Instagram: bisabutler
- ▶ Website: http://www.bisabutler.com
- ▶ YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UChiXKOiBA9E_rGB8kuWqYuw
- ▶ Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/playlist/6kNwrAaFkLt0d7lmQkHcDK
- ▶ Article: http://www.npr.org/2021/08/15/1025950962/black-lives-are-celebrated-in-bisa-butlers-extraordinary-technicolor-quilts
- ▶ Article 2: http://www.essence.com/entertainment/only-essence/essence-unveils-first-ever-quilt-artwork-cover-marking-the-year-that-changed-the-world/
- ▶ Article 3: http://time.com/guardians-of-the-year-2020-racial-justice-organizers
- ▶ Articles: http://www.bisabutler.com/press
