Date of Award

Spring 6-1-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Graphic Design

First Advisor

Ramon Tejada

Second Advisor

Africanus Okokon

Third Advisor

Christopher Roberts

Abstract

ASILI is a Swahili word meaning ORIGIN, SOURCE, and ESSENCE. It can also mean the fundamental principal of a culture. It is not cognitive, it is metaphysical.

The work that I do explores the preconceptual, prespatial and pretemporal organization of culture, specifically African culture and even more specifically, Swahili culture.

I use multiple techniques to interpolate a visual voice to an othered people both continental and abroad. I explore the mythoform that connects the mystical and dive into what of it that becomes a practice within Swahili culture. I take experience from my life as a Swahili woman, from the complexity of the language, from the concealed as well as the openly revealed to navigate my process of translating to a visual language, tangibles and artifacts. I delve into rituals, the occult, memory and the incorporation of senses.

I explore the cultural creativity that drives the African, the Swahili, and consequently, the spirit.

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