Kibibi Ajanku
Kibibi Ajanku is a fiber artist who makes and presents ethnically charged art. Her passion embodies the thrust of the African Diaspora. Ajanku’s creativity is the ongoing and ever-evolving effort of a life journey that is eclectic and innovative. It is ancient while at the same time new-world, and always changing. Kibibi Ajanku’s artistry is layered with, and entrenched in, indigenous folkways through work that embodies research, identity, and the gathering of elements of African retention. She hopes to evoke intuitive memories that reach back into ancestral histories and stories that impact the here and the now.
Kibibi Ajanku’s creative prowess has been witnessed across three decades, in colorful motion, on the various performance stages of the renown Sankofa Dance Theater. The company features elements of the distant past, existing present, and imagined future, all drenched in the traditions of the historical Mali Dynasty. The group exhibits new-world costuming and choreography created by Ajanku, with a nuance that embodies the old-world authentic traditions of West Africa. Ajanku’s body of work features mixed media components and is sometimes infused with sculptural elements, upcycled parts, as well as glass and bead embellishments. The ever-growing collection is not limited to costuming. The landscape of Ajanku’s artistry includes work in indigo, art quilts, two-dimensional, as well as three-dimensional representation.
Her work has been presented at the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Walters Art Museum, Reginald F. Lewis Museum, hangs in private collections, and has graced exhibition walls from Maryland to Colorado to Florida. Kibibi Ajanku’s career has required vast travel for the acquisition of information, materials, supplies, artifacts, and details from indigenous locations in West Africa, South Africa, the Caribbean, and certain American villages. Her major projects have been artistically curated, providing an experience that is an informative journey to the exotic places. Ajanku believes that when presented properly, art is the perfect vehicle to move forward into greater intercultural awareness for the global community.
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