Southnord

Ismaila Fatty

Textile artist Ismaila Fatty will be showing new textile sculptures in his first solo show at Southnord. Fatty (b. 1957, Gambia) has been based in Sweden since 1988. His work bears strong reference to Gambian textile traditions and he often uses tie-dye techniques to manipulate and colour textiles, creating three-dimensional objects from hand-dyed cotton and silk fabrics. Some works appear to be shields; while others depict human forms holding hands, or praying. For this exhibition, Fatty has explored up-cycling traditional Swedish rag-rugs, hand-dying and shaping them to create something new – a meeting of two cultures. He has been exhibited at institutions such as Kulturhuset in Stockholm and has participated in the Dakar Biennale in 2014.