Artist Aliyah Bonnette is telling stories of healing across generations. - Video

In conversation with Aliyah Bonette during her artist residency at Penland.

Aliyah normally works on a large scale, painting her narrative images on quilts.

She spent her one month #PenlandWinterResidency working on a project she’s been dreaming about for awhile… an artist book of which she plans to print editions, adding letterpress text.

Aliya’s work is deeply influenced by her relationship with her ancestors and seeks to connect narratives across generations.

Aliyah says it best:

“My work tells the story of a black woman’s journey to find herself. My figures are representations of me and the women around me.

Through them, I construct stories of our own blackness, femininity and sexuality beyond the violence and hyper sexualization that we face as Black women in a colonized world.

My Kindred who have lived through slavery and Jim Crow directly aid me in the process of making while simultaneously guiding me on my own path of womanhood.

The figures within my work are women living in comfortable environments where they may reveal their authentic self.

They are Black women, often partially or fully nude, who take ownership of their bodies and refuse to be controlled by imposed standards of race, gender or sexuality. Guided by the Kindred, both myself and my figures may find our paths to our true selves, imagining who we may have been without the interference of colonization.”

#penlandwinter #penlandwinterresidency #aliyahbonette