Aliyah Salmon

I Said What I Said

May 7 - June 19, 2022

Aliyah Salmon is a multidisciplinary textile artist, currently residing in Brooklyn. She attended Savannah College of Art and Design, and received her textile design BFA in 2018. Her studio practice explores the playful relationships between color, form, and black identity through a variety of tactile mediums.

I Said What I Said is a collection of textile paintings that explore the converging identities of being a black woman in contemporary America and a part of the Caribbean diaspora. The work retaliates against the often surreal experience of contending with these identities under white supremacy with loud, unapologetic, black joy. Lovingly hand tufted over the course of two years, the work embraces a slow and intentional craft to build conversations about the role textiles and patterns have in naming our identities. While the materials are soft and playful, the motifs depicted reveal a critical interest in the signs of symbols of black identity. Overlapping black hair accessories, gold hoops, and tropical flora act as shorthand for the intersections of respectability politics, black femininity, and the Caribbean diaspora.