Artist: Lizette Chirrime
Medium: fabric and mixed media stitched on canvas
Dimensions: 60 x 37 1/2 in / 152 x 95 cm
Textile artist Lizette Chirrime was born in Mozambique. She creates intricate fabric collages on canvas that are at once celebratory and soul-stirring, as the artist flirts between figuration and abstraction to develop a unique—and distinctly African—visual language. Stitching together printed fabrics, beads, and other familiar objects in Southern Africa, Chirrime transforms simple materials into autobiographical and narrative tableaux freighted with deeply felt emotion and patterns of meaning. Many of her collages center maternal figures and stories of African motherhood, honoring their millennia-long legacy of strength and grace and positing their representation as a symbolic device. In her words: “These abstract forms evoke the human body and my identity-responsive practice where I refashion my self-image and transcend a painful upbringing that left me shattered and broken. I literally ‘re-stitched’ myself together.” Chirrime describes her creative process as “a prayer to the universe,” an intention to heal the earth from overconsumption, pollution and greed.
Learn more about the artist here.