"Wangari Maathai"

Bisa Butler

Part of the Recent Acquisition Highlights

Wangari Maathai," was commissioned for the cover of March 2020 TIME magazine.  In honor of Women’s Month, the magazine selected women who should have been on the cover of TIME but were not, then found the most influential women artists of the moment to depict those women. Butler chose Wangari Maathai, a renowned Kenyan social, environmental and political activist. In 2004, she was the first woman of color to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Maathai also founded the Green Belt Movement, an indigenous, grassroots, nongovernmental organization based in Nairobi, Kenya, that focuses on environmental conservation and community development. Her legacy has been a major force to the world of conservation and continues to inspire activism today.

"Wangari Maathai" is conceptually strong, using fabrics from the textile manufacturer Vlisco’s important Congo project City of Joy, which provides food and shelter to women ostracized by their villages for being victims of war, rape and sexual abuse. To help these survivors heal from past trauma, City of Joy teaches them traditional Dutch wax fabric-making techniques, with the assurance of a job and money to support themselves and their children. Butler has used the fabric designed by these women not only to depict Maathai but to emphasize the importance of community and the sacredness of our planet.