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Vamba Bility (B. 1990, Côte D’Ivoire) is a multi-disciplinary artist based in New Haven, CT. Bility earned an MFA in Painting/Printmaking from Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT, and a BFA in Textiles from Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. His painting, sculpture, and collaborative performance have been exhibited at museums and galleries, such as The Africa Center, New York, Lyles & King, New York, and The Kitchen, New York.
I visited Vamba in mid-November 2022 in his light-filled, New Haven studio. It had been some time since we last connected in person (we've known each other since undergrad) and Vamba caught me up on his experience in grad school during a Pandemic and where his work is today. I had the pleasure of viewing many completed and in-progress works, and am excited to share below a sampling of our continued conversations.
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RSK
You described this season as a "winter of weaving". Can you expand upon what you meant by this, both presently in the studio, and thinking back to your arts training and upbringing?VB
"Winter of weaving" refers to the moving stillness of the process of weaving as it relates to this time of the year, the effect of the weather, and the shortness of daylight. Moments between the treadles, the shafts, the shuttle, and the reeds. In the studio at the moment, the practice feels like it's moving through weaving rather than painting or assemblage. There is something to that feeling that makes me think back to my [textile] training in undergrad and my upbringing in West Africa, as they relate to the atmosphere around this time of year. How does one look toward the atmosphere as a source to feel and process?RSK
Weaving is just one area of interest and you tend to work across mediums, whether in painting, sculpture, or poetry. How do you choose the form of expression and move with this multidisciplinary approach?VB
At times I find myself going into the studio with different anecdotes and mundane moments based in reverie. Those become the guiding forces to the materials, choices and/or approaches to the act of making. While working, I might find myself searching for a connection and/or disconnection to what I'm doing through a different form of making or processing. I'm invested in an engagement process that feels like an on-going call and response.
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RSK
Jannis Kounellis. Anselm Keifer. These are two of your artist guides, so to speak. What, if anything, by these artists do you see reflected in your work or how do they guide you?VB
I had recently been revisiting and processing these two artists' works. Kounellis' use of burlap and other forms of materials in his work as an entrance to thinking through painting. Keifer's methods of layering paints and other forms of materials to create density and tactility on the surface pushes the boundaries of painting and creates possibilities for it to take on other forms. Aside from those artists, these are some other artists I often look towards - to name just a few: the aesthetic vernacular of West African Signage painting by various artists, Meschac Gaba, David Hammons, Lee Bontecou. -
RSK
Throughout your practice, embedded in the materials and references, there’s an honesty and sense of your own personal self-discovery. Do you agree? Is there anything else you might highlight?VBI hope those elements are in the works in some way and they make sense to each piece as it relates to a viewer's position. There is a philosophical approach to my practice at large that’s concerned with what it means to be and processing time. How that is encapsulated at the end, is something I leave up to the work and the viewer. -
RSK
Both of us know the Amtrak line well. The Northeast Corridor, Boston; Providence; New Haven; New York. What do these locations mean to you and how do they play a role in your work?VB
New England and The Northeast have been crucial to my process in so many ways, and a lot of it is through trains or driving. Those moments, and when I find myself searching for materials through different landscapes and material sites, become an extension of the studio space. I find it engrossing when the free association of rapid movement of sights and objects, along with different cultural make-ups, coexist alongside the moments of stillness.