Grant Amount: $11,020 over one year
Award Category: Individual Artist Support
Addoley Dzegede is a fiber and textile artist whose work aims to bring light and attention to African cultural traditions, examine histories of decorative objects with links to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and create room for new narratives and symbols. Her work often contemplates the forces of history, experience and location, as well as how they work together to tell a story, essentially, of longing as a state of being. She will use the $11,020 grant to fund a nine-month research project exploring collections in Dutch institutions to add to her growing knowledge of the history of wax print. The research will culminate in the production of a limited edition, handbound book that will feature fabric samples in batik, natural dye, screen printing and other textile techniques relevant to the project. The grant will help her to pay for the necessary ground transportation, artist fees and other costs of production.
"The artist books will include fabric samples in batik, natural dye, screen printing, and other textile techniques relevant to the project that I will be creating during my research period," says Dzegede.
This project advances Black arts because it delves deep into an important part of identity in the African diaspora: the wax print we often wear to show our pride and heritage. Addoley says she believes it is important to deepen knowledge, to know where traditions come from, and to make room for new traditions to emerge.
WEB: www.addoley.com
INSTAGRAM: @dzegede