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Shaping the Past Exhibition – In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens

In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens honors Black women’s intergenerational and historically marginalized artistic practices. Inspired by Alice Walker’s classic essay of the same name, Kanyinsola Anifowoshe channels intergenerational storytelling and critical monumentality as a means of sustenance and resistance. As a high school senior in 2019, Anifowoshe curated programs, workshops, and an exhibition with Chicago-based artists to center the creative practices of Black women and girls and to envision new monuments to their foremothers. 
 
Kanyinsola Anifowoshe invited local teaching artists Renata Cherlise, Tonika Johnson, Melissa Blount, and Essence McDowell as collaborators, and concluded the program series with a public exhibition that featured collaboratively created works in quilting, photography, embroidery, and video at Experimental Station in Chicago. 

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Kanyinsola Anifowoshe

Kanyinsola Anifowoshe

© Kanyinsola Anifowoshe

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Mina Marroquin-Crow, “Portrait of Maudelle Tanner Brown Bousfield (1855–1971),” 2018

Mina Marroquin-Crow, “Portrait of Maudelle Tanner Brown Bousfield (1855–1971),” 2018

Courtesy of the artist

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Tonika Johnson, “Grandma’s Kitchen 1,” 2016

Tonika Johnson, “Grandma’s Kitchen 1,” 2016

Courtesy of the artist

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Nicole, Jean, and Dordie Hester at “Through the Lens” workshop, February 2019 Art direction by the Hesters

Nicole, Jean, and Dordie Hester at “Through the Lens” workshop, February 2019 Art direction by the Hesters

Courtesy of the artist

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