'Rather than using Photoshop, I chose to work manually with textiles, thread and needles. I use multiple layers of sheer fabrics, intertwined and embroidered together with portions of cutout images, collages of photographs, and golden paint. The different layers simultaneously veil and reveal the feelings that coexist in my imagination.'
“Rather than using Photoshop, I chose to work manually with textiles, thread and needles. I use multiple layers of sheer fabrics, intertwined and embroidered together with portions of cutout images, collages of photographs, and golden paint. The different layers simultaneously veil and reveal the feelings that coexist in my imagination.”
Having studied graphic arts in Casablanca before pursuing a career in advertising, Choumali came to photography later in her career. The artist's fascination with photographs began as a child in Abidjan when her family hired a photographer to take their family portrait. Choumali began to experiment with photography from 2011, but it was in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Grand-Bassam on Sunday 13th March 2016 that the artist began to produce works using her now signature practice of layering embroidery and textiles over her photographs. Through this repetitive and meditative act, Choumali sought to pay homage to the victims of the attack.
'Each stitch was a way to recover, to lay down the emotions, the loneliness, and mixed feelings I felt. As an automatic scripture, the act of adding colourful stitches on the pictures has had a soothing effect on me, like a meditation. Adding embroidery on these street photographs was an act of channeling hope and resilience.'
It was for this body of work that she won the prestigious Prix Pictet Award for Photography and Sustainability in 2019, becoming the first African to do so.
The artist continues to make use of this healing practice in her work; it is a vital part of what she views as the act of taking and creating a photograph. The process is an emotional one as Choumali draws a parallel between the many layers present within her works and within her emotions and memories.
Choumali has exhibited her works in the Ivory Coast at the Musée des Civilisations and the Palais de la Culture, as well as internationally at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art from Africa (South Africa), the Fondation Blachère (France), and at the Bamako International Photography Biennale (Mali), amongst others.