As a multi-disciplinary artist, Ashanté Kindle (@ashantekindle) creates abstracted wave forms inspired by the textures that occur in Black hair naturally and through a range of styling techniques. These waves exist as a visual language used to celebrate the history and beauty of Blackness.

I'll start off by talking a little about my recent residency at the Chautauqua School of Art over the summer. It was an opportunity to really try my hand at printmaking. In my practice, I often find myself focused on singular words and the work for the moment has been 'Press'. This really led me to thinking about the history of this word and all the things it represents. Printmaking became an opportunity for me to explore this history both literally and metaphorically as well.

The action of pressing used in the medium

The history of pressing Black hair

The idea of something being pressing or very important, like a 'pressing matter' for example

All these ideas and more have been running through my head. The prints made during my time at Chautauqua really brought up a lot of thoughts for me in my practice as a whole.

Macro vs Micro

Abstract vs Representational

New ways of exploring repetition

Thinking about how these prints begin to resemble maps and landscapes. So many things. Really excited to see what else comes out of these recent explorations.