We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ghislaine Sabiti a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ghislaine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
GHISLAINE SABITI
OUR UNFINISHED JOURNEY
Curated by Atim Annette Oton, Calabar Gallery
AT THE YARD COLUMBUS CIRCLE
33 W. 60th Street, Floors 2, 11, 12, NY, NY 10023
August 31 to November 2, 2023
A new series of weavings, braiding, and deconstructed paintings, examining issues around immigrants, refugees, and asylum
Sabiti developed a new series of weavings, braiding, and deconstructed paintings, examining issues around immigrants, refugees, and asylum in the greater New Brunswick, New Jersey, area during her Calabar Gallery Art Residency in social justice at coLAB Arts (September 2022 – March 2023). Part of the residency included a workshop with the Interfaith-RISE (I-RISE) refugee community in Highland Park. Workshop participants engaged in drawing lessons alongside their weekly English lessons. Through speaking and creating art, refugee students from Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Colombia reflected on their journeys and experiences. In this way, Sabiti’s workshop empowered refugee and immigrant women and men to tell their stories through visual means.
An artist who lives on three different continents—the U.S., Europe, and Africa—Sabiti constructed a cultural identity through weaving and braiding. As a multidisciplinary artist, Ghislaine Sabiti is deeply invested in a range of materials, how those materials work together, and the processes inherent in each. Individual materials speak to her and help her to work with a variety of processes including constructing and deconstructing the materials, weaving and braiding, canvas and mediums, and mixing painting media to create bold color and gestural surfaces, often made with a palette knife. Sabiti’s interest in questions of community across cultures and languages extend to cross-community communication inside national boundaries and across national, racial, and linguistic barriers. Her work with the people of I-RISE gave her a deeper understanding of the refugee community in Highland Park, where mutual trust and affection is the standard, equity is implicit, and all people find joy and meaning in daily life.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Ghislaine Sabiti is an interdisciplinary French/American Congolese-born artist, painter, ceramist sculptor, costume designer, and glass artist who was raised on the outskirts of Paris and is now based in New York. Ghislaine completed a fellowship at the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute Cycle VIII of the Spring ICA, and Digital Evolution Artists Retention DEAR Cohort III, New York Foundation of the Arts Immigrant Artist Program. She was a resident artist at the ArtYard with coLabarts, Pilchuck Better Together, Urban Glass, Glass Roots, Calabar Gallery and coLABArts, Jamaica Center, and Jamaica Center for Art and Learning.
Ghislaine is nominated by Chashama for an artist residency at the Marcel Breuer House at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s The Pocantico Center and Commission for the Lexington Hotel, New York, Salon du Prêt-à-Porter. Ghislaine was also an award winner for the Dupont De Nemours hosiery design competition for DIM Company
Ghislaine Sabiti has a group exhibiton with Vetri gallery in seattle for WEAR/2023, our highly anticipated second annual summer exhibition celebrating wearable sculpture. Discover talented global artists who work with fabric, rope, metal, glass, and found objects. Curated by Sheila Strobel, this exhibition includes artists who have shaped Vetri’s wearable sculpture aesthetic. https://vetriglass.com/shop/?f[product_secondary_cat]=wearable&qty=64
Sabiti was selected for Fashion AcademyThe BKLYN 2023 Fashion Academy just celebrated it’s 5th Season! https://www.bklynlibrary.org/bklyn-fashion-academy
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
She is examining issues around immigrants, refugees, and asylum in the greater New Brunswick, New Jersey, area during her Calabar Gallery Art Residency in social justice at coLAB Arts (September 2022 – March 2023). Part of the residency included a workshop with the Interfaith-RISE (I-RISE) refugee community in Highland Park. Workshop participants engaged in drawing lessons alongside their weekly English lessons. Through speaking and creating art, refugee students from Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Colombia reflected on their journeys and experiences. In this way, Sabiti’s workshop empowered refugee and immigrant women and men to tell their stories through visual means.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
My work develops projects between communities and collects fractured narratives for social change through identity. I build a bridge between communities and culture. My work explores the stories of those often forgotten or misunderstood.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ghislainesabiti.com
- Instagram: @ghislainesabiti
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ghislaine-Sabiti-869510829842955/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ghislaine-sabiti-035a7457/
- Twitter: @ghisl;ainesabiti
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ghislainesabiti7379/videos
Image Credits
ghislaine sabiti