Malaika Temba

Lives and works in New York, NY, USA

Artist statement

My work embodies the paradox of resilience: soft and ornate but unbreakable. It is a testament to the struggles of Black womanhood, interpersonal relationships, and undigested reflections. It is meant to be a monument to obligations of emotional labor, and also a record of vulnerability, sarcasm, and evidence of bliss – distilled, fragmented and abstracted. Centering textiles as my primary artistic medium illustrates the sense of responsibility, time, attention and patience expected of women, in their traditional roles as comforters, nurturers, protectors – even as their labor is hard and unceasing. Textiles function as carrier, metaphor, and marker of time through the care and labor of their production, which is often taken for granted and conflated with gendered and feminized notions of the soft and sweet. At the core of my practice is the tension between contemporary, new media techniques (digital media and mass-production, industrial machinery) and historic, tactile ancestral techniques and artisanry. I use paint, stamps, stencils, drawing media, felting, and spray paint layered over and combined with industrial methods of Jacquard weaving, Stoll knitting, digital embroidery, laser cutting, quilting, sublimation and UV printing, and sewing. My use of patterns, high-texture materials, and vibrant colors from Tanzanian imagery and objects reflect my own upbringing and draw on my personal lineage as an abundant resource. At large scale, my work monumentalizes the beauty...

Artwork