Bisa Butler is a figurative quilter, her textile art having the imagery of paint; the life-size figures being full of such depth that you feel that even the clothes they’re wearing are real, and that you could put them on yourself. The artworks are strikingly tactile not just for their rich and strong colouring but the way the models are captured; with it seeming as though you have walked into a room and seen a group of people momentarily frozen in time.
Coming from a family of quilters, Butler is the third in her generation to work in this medium, but her imagery takes it to a level of art never before seen. Trained in painting, the direction of her artwork first began when producing a figurative quilt for her grandma, based on a black and white photo of her wedding day. From here Butler continued to merge her knowledge of art and fabric to produce something irresistible.
Dear Mama, 2019. © Bisa Butler.
Photo by Margaret Fox. Collection of Scott and Cissy Wolfe.
The textiles Butler uses are not chosen at random but hold their own specific meaning; whether it’s through their age; telling the history of the maker; personal fabric from her family that holds the memory of an experience; or the design and colour of the material having a clear and proud reference to the culture of Africa and its heritage. Each of the fabrics differ in their tales and are meant to tell a story as much as the models do.
Inspiration for Butler’s portraits come from photographs of the past – which are then enlarged onto the fabric – these images either relating to her family, to the individual stories her grandma told her about those captured in the black and white photographs, or through Butler’s research into black lives. There’s also a series of contemporary faces in the collection of Butler’s portraiture such as the influential figures of Nelson Mandela, Malcolm X, Lupita Nyong’o and more.
The Safety Patrol, 2018. © Bisa Butler . Photo by Margaret Fox. Cavigga Family Trust Fund.
Butler’s art records voices of the past and present in a medium that makes them feel as though they’re within reach of being known. Her talented artwork being a leading example of a growing area in fine art, known as Fiber Art; using a range of fabrics and textiles. The artwork expanded by the fact that the medium itself can tell a story as much as the image.
