NADA New York | Pier 36, Booth P24 | May 5 – 8, 2022
autobiography of my mother 2022
Two-color lithograph with chine collé
Triptych; Each sheet: 17 x 13.25 in.
Publisher: EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop
Edition: 20
NONTSIKELELO MUTITI: NEW Publications
+ from the Archives of Robert Blackburn: Maren Hassinger
EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (EFA RBPMW) is pleased to participate in the relaunch of NADA New York, with a two-person presentation: a new publication by Nontsikelelo Mutiti and a selection from the Archives of Robert Blackburn: Maren Hassinger’s Starry Night (1990).
Mutiti’s autobiography of my mother is a triptych, printed by Master Printer Jazmine Catasús, combining both handwritten and type texts. Hairpins reflect grooming, and to see them scattered across the page yet leaving space for unseen photographs highlights the intimacy of the single statement that rests at the bottom of the two prints: “things I share only with you”. The fronts of the photographs are never revealed; however, the backs show the care of handwritten notes listing the people, locations, and dates when they were taken.
Mutiti emphasizes the significance of hair braiding as a sophisticated form of community technology of the African Diaspora. Through her design sensibility, Mutiti builds on the visual vocabulary of braided patterns to create a full set of typographic characters. Kusina Mai/Kusina Mai Futi (2021; Publisher: Stable, Washington, DC; Printed at EFA RBPMW), a diptych screenprint, is based on a system of modules that can be interchained to produce a range of patterns and variable typographic characters. This formal experimentation can be seen in various iterations across Mutiti’s long-term research project: RUKA (to knit/ to braid/ to weave), which draws parallels between African hair braiding practices and digital image-making processes.
With public projects and zine making, Mutiti extends the aesthetics of African Hair braid salons, self-care, and the forms of community and exchange that take place within them. Presented with autobiography of my mother is a selection from her own archive: a collection of combs, some found in stores and some produced by the artist; a publication entitled African Hair Braiding Salon Reader (2014); and Black Thang Objects (2016), which incorporates replicas of beauty supply products cast in resin, concrete, and wax that come to take on culturally recognized silhouettes.
From the Archives of Robert Blackburn, Mutiti selected a woodblock print by Maren Hassinger, Starry Night (1990). Similar to Mutiti’s own block prints, which are produced through assemblage of a series of modules, Hassinger’s print is a grid made up of nine separate blocks that can be reconfigured to create multiple variations. Both artists straddle the space of handmade gestures and mathematical limitations to determine an endpoint.
