Working Research Question

For my research paper, I would like to research more the African textile industry more in depth. I grew up wearing these prints which I later found out where produced in The Netherlands by a company called Vlisco. I am interested in researching how this company, based outside of the African continent have such a monopoly over how textile is consumed within the continent. What does this mean for different cultures? Can these cultures still exist authentically whole consuming these textiles? I would also like for this to serve as a lens into looking at the economy in Africa in general and the ways colonization has influenced our contribution into capitalism and ways we are able to modernize the African identity.

 

 

 

 

My passion for design stems from my origins in Africa and my emigration to the United States. I came to Chicago as a nine year old refugee from Togo, Africa in 2007. Because I came at a young age, the full experience and the understanding of the culture of Togo was taken from me. This has led me to the feeling of not fully being able to immerse and be a part of either culture. I struggle with the dual nature of my identity as I negotiate my original African culture and my assimilated American culture. In my work, I explore this duality through patterns and motifs in order to grasp at a better understanding of my own identity and culture. In my textile designs, I take traditional African pattern motifs and reconstruct and reinvent them through photoshop in order to make new patterns from them. In doing this, I am deconstructing the original or intended meaning of these symbols and re-creating more new and personal meaning for them. Using motifs from both my mother’s and my clothing made with African textiles, I am questioning the authenticity of these textiles and how they are easily reimagined through mass production. In this series I am focused on one motif “L’Oignon Matungulu” or “Home on Three Legs”. This symbol in particular represents the meaning of home and the power of unity. Thinking back on my own story and being removed from my own culture, I separate the connecting branches of this pattern, and differentiate the placements of them on each newly reconstructed textile. The five cohesive designs, titled Maison Jacques, is a representation of the seven years I have spent living in America. There is a total of seven looks in the collection to represent those seven years. I am examining the theme of vacillation between American culture and African culture. I mainly used two textiles, an African cotton print pattern and a pink stretched vinyl, to serve as symbols of my two cultures. By sewing together both of these fabrics, I am able to create an artificial connection between the two cultures. The pink stretched vinyl is brighter than the African pattern, causing it to look out of place, questioning a possibility of coexistence between the cultures. In my newest body of work, Deconstructed, I take inspiration from my work in the HIV/AIDS community as an activist to end stigma around the virus. I am inspired by how the virus basically deteriorates the immune system, causing the body to lose the ability to fight many infections. As part of my process, I observed and documented the decaying structures of New York City’s subway system and used it as backdrop to my collection. In the first garment, I used a technique called inserting, where I put cut outs of satin fabric into the seams and throughout time they start to fray, and would ultimately deconstruct the garment. In the second garment, I am sewing the seams inside out. The seams that are normally on the inside of the garment are being shown on the outside, giving the garment a deconstructive look.

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