Self encounters
Nifa Mousai
Nifa Mousai (b.1997 Bronx, NY) is an artist from New York City. She received her BFA in Painting & Drawing from Adelphi University in Long Island, NY and her MFA in Painting & Drawing from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY.
Artist Statement
The desire to create an internal space within myself - a home to preserve my thoughts, ideas, and manifestations lead into the many versions of self representation that I explore. The context of camouflage is an extension of my internal space and a centralized tool that encompasses the parts of the self that are visible or missing . I paint with various materials such as glitter and rhinestones that portrays this sense of visibility, as parts of my subjects alternate from being seen and unseen in the space.
The oracle figure in my work Kafigeledjo “ he who speaks the truth” is an invisible bush spirit native to the Senufo peoples in Cote d'ivoire, West Africa. Kafigeledjo is used as a divination device to uncover misdeeds, false testimony, and culpability. The communication of the kalfigeledjo’s spiritual presence upon my work acts like an angel watching over the subjects and hold them accountable for their own doings or misdeeds done onto them. Kafigelejo personally represents power and child-like truths that go unexamined and overlooked.
The oracle figure in my work Kafigeledjo “ he who speaks the truth” is an invisible bush spirit native to the Senufo peoples in Cote d'ivoire, West Africa. Kafigeledjo is used as a divination device to uncover misdeeds, false testimony, and culpability. The communication of the kalfigeledjo’s spiritual presence upon my work acts like an angel watching over the subjects and hold them accountable for their own doings or misdeeds done onto them. Kafigelejo personally represents power and child-like truths that go unexamined and overlooked.