Bisa Butler: Portraits | Exhibition Stories

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Hi, my name is Bisa Butler and I'm an artist who uses quilting as an art form. So many of us artists look for that inspiration and it does take a while to sort of excavate your own soul and figure out what is driving you. For me, it always started with my interest in my own past, looking at my family's photo albums.

My grandmother was from New Orleans. Her family photo albums would have been like late 1800s. In New Orleans, they have a long history of a free Black population and also a mixed race population called the Creoles.

They really strove for dignity. And so, the pictures that my grandmother had were these stern-looking people, very laced-up, buttoned-up clothing. And I was confused at that because that's completely the opposite of what you read about in the school books.

So to see photographic evidence of the opposite really spurred on a lot of like inquisitiveness in me. My first pieces of artwork were depicting those people in her photo albums. Thing is about the photos that I come across now, they're in the National Archives.

I was looking just for people of color, Black people. I realized I was looking up the wrong topic. I had to look up Negro because if I wanted to see a black-and-white image, then I had to use old-fashioned terminology.

And none of them had names. Some of them had a place. Like it might say, "Negro in Mississippi Delta." And that felt tragic to me, I should say, because it meant that this photograph was taken and this person obviously knew somebody took their photo that day, but that's the only thing they knew.

They don't get to see it. Their living relatives will never see those images. And I felt compelled to do something for those people.

Even though they're gone, I just felt like what a shame. Look at this beautiful family or person and they're just gonna sit here in this database forever. And all of my pieces are life-size and I do that on purpose too because I want it to be like they're here now.

That sort of is my quest now. When I started thinking about this show, I got to sit down with Erica Warren and talk about what pieces she and I both agreed were important for the exhibit. I use photographs very heavily.

Because of that, Erica Warren had suggested possibly being able to some Gordon Parks pieces into the show and I was completely like, "Oh yes, please, please," because I've been so moved by his images. And then even to get Nelson Stevens and Barbara Jones-Hogu's work because they are AfriCOBRA artists. Their color schemes mimic mine, or I should say that mine mimic theirs.

And also like the underlying themes are very similar depicting African Americans and showing them with a certain pride and beauty. When people look at my works, they tell me that they feel the spirit of the person. And I'm hoping that when they look at that image, they realize that the people they pass every day are just the same as these images that are from the past.

Vintage photographs are what drew me in in the first place. They're what inspire me. In a lot of my figures you'll see like a very direct gaze.

And I almost feel like with some figures like they're called out. I hope that when you look at my work you think of home and you think of old-fashioned things like quilting, and then also things like saying thank you and being kind and being fair. When Black people see my work, I'm hoping that they see reflections of themselves, like a mirror, but the self that you want to be and the self that you really are.

And I hope that when white people see my work, they understand that Black people are just like them as well. I'm hoping that people find that connection and feel this connection to humanity in general. (mellow instrumental music)