Kinship
Interview by Laura Neilson
Photography by Rose Callahan
Hair + Makeup by Ashley Meyers
On the eve of her book’s release, multidisciplinary artist Malene Barnett talks to us about how we can all connect through what we make, what we collect, and what we can learn from our pasts.
When we speak on the phone, just two weeks before the debut of her book, “Crafted Kinship,” Malene Barnett tells us about her mother—a ‘jack of all trades,’ she claims. Well, the apple doesn’t fall from the tree.
The Fulbright award-winning artist, who has worked across an array of mediums, including textiles, ceramics, wallpaper, and other surfaces, has one busy autumn ahead of her. Along with her book, there’s her ongoing exhibition as part of “Liberatory Living: Protective Interiors & Radical Black Joy” at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, as well as the Smithsonian Design Triennial at the Cooper Hewitt museum, featuring an installation by the Black Designers + Artists Guild (BADG), which she founded in 2018. It’s a dizzying lineup, and yet for Barnett, a natural-born organizer, it’s the connections (both past and present) that continue to fuel her.
I’ve been surrounded by artists all my life. My mother was a maker. She was a jack of all trades.
I watched her make macrame wall hangings. She taught pottery classes, she taught me how to sew. We used to have a cake decorating business. So growing up, there was always this idea of “making.” And then I learned more about my grandmother, who had migrated to the US on her own, and how she was a designer. My auntie was also a fashion designer. And I really saw this all through the black women in my life. That’s why my work looks at the region of the Caribbean through the hands of black women makers.
I had my first trip to Ghana in 1995, in my 20s, on a cultural exchange program.
That’s when I really felt the connection to my ancestry, and my origin story. And that's when I started to really connect all of my work to making processes from West Africa, particularly Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, and Senegal.
For me, travel is part of the education.
You could read the books, you could watch the videos, you could look at a lot of information, but being in the actual space and being with its community doesn’t compare, right? That’s how you develop relationships. You have to be on the ground with people. You have to hear their stories. You have to see how people move, how their food is grown, and actually taste the food! All that inspires and keeps me curious. So I travel. I'm always itching to go somewhere.
I learned a long time ago that my purpose in life is to inspire people.
And I also think that I'm a good connector. My personality is one that enables me to connect with people, and I’m always happy to share. It’s how I am naturally—I know how to bring people together. And when I started the guild, it was really because I knew all these people. I knew all these amazing black talents, and I wanted to bring everybody together. They knew me, but they didn’t know each other. I wanted to show everyone that there’s more of us, that we could build a community together.
I feel proud of what I've accomplished. Being an artist, it’s not an easy journey creating a sustainable income.
There have been major fluctuations, but you know, I’ve been able to get to this point where I can look around and say, ‘Wow, I'm finally living with the work that I've been making, and the work of others who inspire me,’ and know that there’s still more opportunity to grow.
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