Update: See at the bottom of this story for for the museum’s Closing Reception Celebration festivities,
May 2
Artist and arts based researcher crafts traditions.
Aneesa Shami Zizzo: Reclamation, showing until May 9 at Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Museum, considers the process of constructing and reclaiming one’s identity by attending to shared memory.
Repurposing discarded materials, such as thrifted and gifted yarn, fabric samples and old magazines, Shami Zizzo creates weavings, appliqued tapestries, and paper collages that become embedded with cultural traditions and personal narrative. Her work echoes her experiences as a second-generation Arab American and expresses notions of the cyclical nature of life and self-reflection.
Zizzo, an artist and arts based researcher, was awarded a residency at the Arab American National Museum in May 2024; and she was a fellow for the Mildred’s Lane Attention Labs: Order of the Third Bird in 2015 (an experimental, cultural organization where interdisciplinary artists collaborate on novel forms of social engagement in art, ecology, science and history). She is also the co-owner and director of Studio 203, an artist-run space in Los Angeles promoting fiber art, craft-based work and social practices.
Zizzo loves color, texture and mixing items that do not go together. In her “Tuesday Talk” at Kleefeld Contemporary, Shami Zizzo explained to her audience she once made an entire weaving out of fringe, which led her into a rug weaving piece, “a monumental feat,” she said.
Recreating From Original Objects
Collage as a medium always spoke to her, Zizzo said. She found her voice in finding imagery from found magazines, old crayons, reclaimed materials and textiles. Reusing was embedded into her when young; seeing history from objects that have a life of their own. “Materials speak to me first,” said Zizzo, who knows where all her materials come from. Recreating is special to her and she wants to share that with others.
Zizzo’s lush Proto is made of hand-knotted acrylic, wool and cotton yarn samples.
Within its multi-color intensity, texture and fullness she noted that pockets of color are bigger and bolder.
“It’s a sculptural, three dimensional piece made from a loom [it was] an unexpected result,” Zizzo said.
Measuring at 36 x 28 x 6 inches, close to the size of a large sham, Proto’s soft, richness draws you in, eliciting a grandmother’s lovingly made afghan, inviting you to fall into its luxuriance.
Paper Collage
Scheherazade (2017), collaged magazine images on unstretched canvas, 46 x 70 x 1, is a journey into how people perceive other cultures through the National Geographic lens. The artist tears up pieces of magazine paper, which she paints onto the canvas. But they aren’t flat. Torn paper shreds slant upwards, adding both textural and sculptural aspects to the composition.
Fragments of paper represent fragments of coverage of the Arab World from the periodical — and in fragmented stories from media. It is her process expressed as an Arab American artist. Zizzo utilizes the magazines, page by page, with her aim being for people to see the whole magazine at once.
A March post from Zizzo’s Instagram explains the artist “is launching a large series on National Geographic magazine, titled the Scheherazade Project, her first art-as-research project incorporating various documentation practices in an effort to rewrite colonial perspectives in media. She will build on her series of abstract collages using 20th century National Geographic magazines [… using various media and written notes] while reclaiming Orientalism.”
In two other abstract collage pieces that are very meaningful to her, Zizzo is utilizing Architectural Digest magazines and African fabric appliques. These are part of a larger series from after she visited Lebanon, where her father grew up, for the first time in 2018. Pieces in this series commemorate her family’s outings together from the trip, which Zizzo called life changing.
(R). Photo courtesy of Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Museum
Baba’s Goldmine, reclaimed textile fabric samples using hand stitched applique, from Zizzo’s Something Sacred series references a city in Lebanon and her fathers family legacy. Its imagery is inspired by the Baalbek Temple ruins in Lebanon. Baba’s Goldmine’s colors of sky blue, earthy brown, orange and golden brown, and fabric strips of patterns in blue marble and geometric patterns, all together, create a composition of depth and movement; memories past and present interweaving stories.
Zizzo also spoke about her Bedtime Stories for Yuri series of applique tapestries she’s creating for her son. The pieces, loosely inspired by vertical scrolls, Mughal paintings and Arabic calligraphy, recall her childhood stories and sharing them with her son through her art process. Zizzo explained she’s reclaiming generational trauma in order to not pass it on to her son.
In her artist statement, Zizzo says:
“I am interested in the innate human desire for storytelling, and much of my work revolves around regenerative themes of life journeys, transformation, and continual self reflection.
Making while meditating is an important part of my practice as an artist and arts-based researcher, embedding my subconscious thought process into each piece while methodically hand stitching or knotting. Using repurposed material allows me to breathe new life into otherwise disregarded media and craft traditions.”
In addition, you can join to celebrate the closing of the museum’s spring exhibitions and honor 50 years of community building at the Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum. Spring exhibitions tell personal stories from artists expressed through photography, video, sculpture, paper collage, and textile and fiber art.
Enjoy art, music, dancing, art activities, lawn games, snacks, beverages and Aneesa Shami Zizzo will hold Collage art activities for all ages inspired by her artworks.
Find details of the 50 Years of Art: Golden Anniversary and Exhibitions Closing Party here
Aneesa Shami Zizzo: Reclamation
Time: 12 to 5 p.m., Thursday: 12 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, through May 9.
Details: https://www.csulb.edu/carolyn-campagna-kleefeld-contemporary-art-museum
And https://www.instagram.com/aneesashami
Cost: Free
Venue: Carolyn Campagna Kleefeld Contemporary Museum ,1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach