Residencies
Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien
6 JANUARY – 24 MARCH 25
(France)
Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien works across textiles, drawing, sculpture, photography, painting, video-performance, engraving, and installation. Borrowing from the craft traditions and mythologies of her Akan and Guadalupian heritage, she explores ideas of femininity, the cosmos, and visual poetry.
Marie-Claire grew up between Côte d’Ivoire, Guadeloupe and France. In her assemblages, she uses raffia, cotton, vegetable leather, glass, shells, and copper to interrogate the relationships between traditions, mythologies and modern societies, including the people who live within, in-between and alongside them. Her work also incorporates craft traditions passed down from her mother, grandmother and the long matrilineal line of Akan women who preceded them on her father’s side.
Seeing her practice as an ongoing exploration of the intersectional positionalities of women, Marie-Claire works conjure ephemeral narratives of perpetual renewal, both ‘witnessing’ and ‘tracing’ diverse cultural histories.
Marie-Claire Messouma Manlanbien’s residency is supported by Prue MacLeod.