“These are 70-year-old sails from Egypt,” Christopher Myers says, digging through a pile of fabrics in his Brooklyn studio. “As a material, they have so much to say.” Textiles and their backstories have become central to his art practice. Since meeting a group of craftspeople making patchwork placemats in Luxor five years ago, he has been collaborating with them on large, figurative quilts inspired by the asafo flags of Ghana. Myers (also a playwright and children’s-book author and illustrator) calls the mural-like compositions “flags for nations that will never exist.” He made one for Drexciya, an undersea kingdom dreamed up for slave-ship passengers thrown overboard, and another for Zip the Pinhead, a 19th-century African American freak show performer and nation of one. Several examples—including new ones stretching 20 feet in length—go on display December 14 at Fort Gansevoort’s new gallery in Los Angeles. fortgansevoort.com
Textile Artist Christopher Myers Debuts New Set of Figurative Quilts at Fort Gansevoort
Inspired by asafo flags of Ghana, the artist, playwright, and author will show his mural-like compositions in Los Angeles this December
Christopher Myers.Image courtesy of Fort Gansevoort.
