Montclair magazine: Tell us about your technique, using photographs and giving them new life through the medium of quilting. Here, Butler, who graduated with a Master of Arts in Teaching in 2005, answers our questions about her “whirlwind” year and the many decades of work behind it. Her work engages with themes of family, community, migration, history, creativity and promise using a variety of material including velvet, cotton, wool, silk and West African kente cloth. Butler’s unique technique involves reappropriating vintage photographs and giving them new life through a traditional folkloric medium – quilting. Mailissa “Bisa” Yamba Butler’s art career has soared in the past year, capped by a solo show at the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago, where 22 of her works are on exhibit until September 6, 2021.
“I use these fabrics to help communicate the story I am trying to tell.” –Mailissa “Bisa” Yamba Butler ’05 MAT We look forward to sharing more than 20 of her works with you when Bisa Butler: Portraits, the first museum exhibition dedicated to her work, opens to members on November 14.Textile artist’s quilts tell stories of the human condition through intricate patterns But while her inspiration comes from vintage photographs, Butler’s choice of color and fabrics paired with her use of scale and beautifully stitched detailing infuse her subjects with a vibrantly contemporary feel and encourage multiple readings. Her quilted portraits include a wide range of subjects-from a group of boys in their Sunday best to a family embarking on the Great Migration. These are just a few of the examples of Butler’s work and source materials. After all, these four women paved the way for Obama, and with their piercing gazes, they continue to demand that present and future generations follow in their trailblazing footsteps, seizing opportunities and defying expectations.
The woman on the far right wears a skirt made from a fabric named “Michelle’s Shoes,” after First Lady Michelle Obama, a symbol of strength and power.
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The caged bird flying free on the sleeve of the woman’s blouse seated at center right highlights the fact that all of these women are using education to set themselves free. The hat of the woman seated at the far left features a fabric known as “Speed Bird,” signaling that she is going places. Minneapolis Institute of Art, promised gift on long-term loan from a private collection. The women’s confidence captured the artist’s attention, and as with her portrait of Douglass and her homage to Baldwin, she precisely attended to the details of their ensembles.īisa Butler.
For her work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, named to honor the poet Maya Angelou, she drew inspiration from an archival photo of four women, college students, sitting on the steps of a building on the campus of Atlanta University in 1899 or 1900. Indeed, fabrics play a critical role for Butler in both defining the narratives of her portraits and highlighting the contemporary resonance of her subjects.
The expatriate connection is furthered by the juxtaposition of pink and white background fabrics, which evokes a well-appointed European interior. To suggest that he, like Baldwin, is an expatriate, Butler employed an African-print fabric that features airplanes and international clocks for his trousers. Butler offers a vision of a man unafraid to question the status quo and to critique a nation that fails to live up to its founding ideals. With one bent elbow resting on his knee and the other draped across his thigh, he appears casually confident and elegant as he looks upon the viewer with a furrowed brow.
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