Cici Osais — CROWN HEIGHTS 

Cici Osias (b. Baltimore, MD) is a textile artist and photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. Cici draws influence from Haitian, Black American, Congolese, and Nigerian motifs to make meaning of her identity and hold her people close. 

Within her textiles, Cici recognizes the role of cloth as a vessel for storytelling within African, Caribbean, and African American culture. Through this work, she traces shared origin and collective memory across the Black diaspora. Cici’s film photography embraces family as a verb and the earth as kin.

Most recently Cici has exhibited work in Brooklyn at the Old Stone House, Haiti Cultural Exchange, Textile Arts Center, and Weeksville Heritage Center.

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“My project Nou kominike ak twal is inspired by the communal art-making practices of the Black diaspora. It is rooted in an understanding of artmaking as something we are all capable of, and something best when experienced collectively. This project allowed me to foster a space for individuals to create in unison, where artists and their works became parts of a whole. 

Across the Diaspora, cloth is used to hold stories. The textiles from the three workshops tell the stories of their makers and environments. We dyed fabric at Westbrook Memorial Garden, 1100 Bergen Street Garden, and Walt L. Shamel Garden. The dyeing process was preceded by conversations with one another and space for reflection on our community relationships. I felt called to let the works live in the gardens where they were born and to have them be accessible to others in the neighborhood. 

Within my textile practice, I use techniques from my parents’ and grandparents’ motherlands: Haiti, Congo, Nigeria, and Black America. Because most of these places are out of reach and these traditions passed down orally, I have spent many years learning and researching these methods. I owe my craft to the archives and people who were willing to share this knowledge with me, and see it as my duty to continue passing along all that I have learned. Through these workshops, we all spoke through cloth.“

– Cici Osias

Photos by Cici Osias, Micaela Walker, and Alain Andre.

Nou kominike ak twal featured textiles created by Cici Osias in collaboration with the community members who attended dyeing workshops in community gardens in Crown Heights: Westbrook Memorial Garden, 1100 Bergen Street Garden, and Walt L. Shamel Garden. These works were also made in collaboration with the gardens themselves, in response to both place and plant. 

Each piece was made with natural dyes including madder root, indigo, and Osage Orange tree bark (the latter of which Cici foraged in Prospect Park). Artists used the Yoruba resist dyeing technique of adirẹ eleko, where a paste made from cassava flour and alum is painted onto fabric in order to repel the dye in certain areas. 

After they leave this gallery, the fabrics will be subject to the environment, just as we all are. As these cloths hang in the gardens where they were conceived, they will be bleached by the sun and wave in the wind. These textiles will show the time that has passed and take new forms as they age. 

From the artist: “Thank you to the people who were willing to learn with me, the gardens that let us play in their soil, the hands that helped make this project happen, and the practitioners of these crafts who came before me.” 

To every resident, workshop participant, neighborhood partner, mentor, funder, and supporter: thank you for making this year’s residency possible. A special thanks to the groups and institutions who offered their spaces to foster this project:

1100 Bergen Street Garden • Brooklyn Queens Land Trust • Kafou Gallery • Walt L. Shamel Garden • Westbrook Memorial Garden