Textiles and their philosophical and cultural significance, their ability to immortalize feelings and life circumstances, are an important part of interpersonal communication in many African cultures.
In my work, I have reformulated the digital practice of so-called gel electrophoresis - fingerprints that are transferred into a stripe pattern - with the deep ancestral knowledge of the Ghanaian kente textile. The result is a knit that is heavy, that is valuable, that tells a history in the form of knitted fingerprints, muted colors that remind me of being German, and a unique family story. Textiles tell the stories of the people, of the places, whose stories are often untold and unheard.
My practice closely relates to pre-colonial methods, such as oral storytelling and the intergenerational inheritance of memory in the form of sculptures, poems, and fabrics and clothing.
