""My practice exists in the tension between rest and labor, between the intimacy of touch and the vast systems that shape our world," says artist Malaika Temba. "Whether I am working on a small weaving or a large-scale installation, I am always asking what materials remember and who gets remembered through them." Merging digital and analog processes, Temba creates layered textile pieces in an exploration of migration, labor, gender, global trade, and daily life."
"Growing up, Temba lived in Saudi Arabia, Uganda, South Africa, Morocco, and the United States. In moving between countries, the Tanzanian-American artist tells Colossal, "I was always struck by how fabric marks culture, and how pattern, texture, and material can tell you where you are by what people wear, how they use cloth, and what materials are available to them-whether found in nature, brought through trade, or produced by industry.""
Malaika Temba creates layered textile works that merge digital and analog techniques to examine migration, labor, gender, global trade, and daily life. She uses a Jacquard loom to render intimate portraits and quotidian urban scenes that emphasize touch and domestic labor alongside broader economic systems. Her upbringing across Saudi Arabia, Uganda, South Africa, Morocco, and the United States informed an awareness of how fabric signals culture through pattern, texture, and available materials. The Jacquard loom embodies a link between ancient human-coded technology and modern computation. Recent work centers on sisal, a Tanzanian fiber tied to labor and trade.
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