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Clouds Bring Blessings

© Thandiwe Muriu

Clouds Bring Blessings unveils a new body of work in which the artist Thandiwe Muriu opens a dialogue with her natural environment and affirms her ongoing commitment to exploring cultural heritage. For these portraits, Muriu produced her own textiles using the tie & dye technique, embracing collaboration with nature, resistance, and surrender.

When I first began experimenting with fabric-making, I imagined a dive into a technique—a study in both historical and contemporary craftsmanship. Tie & dye seemed like a natural starting point, unseemingly complicated by difficult production techniques, or so I thought. Journeying deeper into the art of fabric-making, what was supposed to be a reconnection to traditional methodologies soon turned into a recognition of our longstanding dialogue with the environment. This journey was not a nostalgic return, but a yielding of process. Over time, it became unsettlingly clear that the environment was my uninvited co-creator. The more I tried to control the outcome of the dyeing process, the more she resisted. This isn’t just a series about fabric. It is about impact; about the undeniable entanglement between what we make, and the world we make it in.
Thandiwe Muriu 2025

click to view the complete set of images in the archive



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