Cassi

Namoda's

first

US

museum

solo

'Life

Is

the

Seamstress

of

Dreams'

at

The

Institute

for

Contemporary

Art

Cassi Namoda: Life Is the Seamstress of Dreams is the first U.S. solo museum presentation of the work of Cassi Namoda, whose paintings explore culture, folklore, and mythologies of Mozambique across the nation’s colonial and postcolonial eras. With a particular interest in vernacular forms of design and storytelling, Namoda transforms her childhood memories of post-independence Mozambique into transfixing paintings that dwell simultaneously in the past and in her unique vision for a postcolonial future. Her lively and colorful scenes draw from a pastiche of Pan-African figures including Ousmane Sembène, the Senegalese filmmaker whose avant-garde cinema confronted legacies of oppression, and Ricardo Rangel, whose street photographs documented Maputo’s clandestine interracial nightlife. A constant point of investigation for Namoda is her portrayal of Black heroines, or Marias, whom she situates in liminal spaces between desire, angst, and the divine. This exhibition includes loaned works and newly commissioned paintings, as well as films that reflect Namoda’s longstanding practice of collecting, archiving, and weaving together found images and footage into dreamspaces, landscapes, and emotive worlds. 

Curated by Jessica Bell Brown, Executive Director of the ICA, the exhibition will be accompanied by a series of free public programs and events.