Shashari Kiburi

Cosmic Maps, a journey in stitches

This current exhibition is a culmination of my exploration in textiles. I wanted to find a way to create a series of works that expressed my connection to the past and the need to honor my ancestors, bringing their voices to the present. Quilting is an art form that communicates an act of love and patience. Quilts, past and present, are often given as gifts to honor a loved one and provide a functionality that conveys warmth and care. Textiles, specifically Indigo, have a rich and varied history throughout Western Africa, the region of my ancestors. Each quilt is sewn with either my Indigo fabric or a deep black dye to emphasize composition. While creating this series, I also conducted a fair amount of research and chose to design several works in honor of ancestors of the past both seen and unseen. These quilts are gifts to them. Actively creating art, sorting through the ups and downs of the process itself, is also a metaphor for my own personal experience. Each quilt contemplates the past, abstract compositions revealing stories through color, line,and shape. The narrative quality of these quilts act like a portal or bridge, a connection to the commonalities we all share as human beings. I invite you, the viewer, to engage with my quilts and feel a connection to their own space and time. 

Shashari Kiburi is a visual artist and educator working primarily in textiles. As a child she felt a deep connection to creating . Growing up in a sewing household, she sat by her mom’s sewing machine often, pulling the pins out of fabric as her mother made many of the clothes she and her siblings wore. While studying Anthropology at UC Berkeley, she had the opportunity to learn printmaking from painter Mary O’Neal. This work inspired a deep passion for abstract art and eventually led to using fiber as medium for storytelling. Shashari’s work in quilting came about when her children were young. It was a medium that she could fit into her busy life as a mother of four children. She was able to seamlessly apply her practice in drawing and photography with textiles. Drawing upon her ancestry she also dyes indigo fabrics as a foundation for her quiltmaking. Indigo puts her voice into each of the quilts and helps to close the gaps between her ancestors’ past and her present.

She has shown her work at the Oakland Museum, the Steinbeck Museum in Salinas, Ca, the Ontario Museum in L.A, and the Crocker Museum in Sacramento, Ca. Her work was recently published in Curated Quilts quarterly magazine. Shashari currently teaches visual arts in Sacramento where she lives with her family. Follow her current creative work on Instagram @ulaludie.