Bisa Butler - “Hot, Cool, and Vicious” (2022)
Dutch wax fabric, vinyl, wool, glitter, velvet, and screen printed cotton, quilted and appliquéd, 8 x 10 feet.
About Bisa Butler
Bisa Butler is an award-winning African American textile artist. She is known for her vibrantly stunning larger-than-life-sized quilted portraits that captivate viewers around the world.
Increasingly, Butler collaborates with living photographers and artists. Spurred by a desire for connection during pandemic lockdowns, she approached Janette Beckman, whose photographs of 1980s hip-hop stars like Run DMC and Salt-N-Pepa documented the era and graced genre-defining album covers.
“Hot, Cold, and Vicious” portrays Salt-N-Pepa’s era-defining bomber jackets, boots, and bodysuits in bold, African wax fabric, also known as Dutch wax. Combined with vinyl, glitter, and velvet, details like bamboo-shaped “door-knocker” hoop earrings, boomboxes, and LP records were screen-printed onto cotton swatches in collaboration with Butler’s studio neighbor, artist Gary Lichtenstein. - thisiscolassal