Kenniese S. Franklin
Award-winning nature artist working in the American South.
Reception Room, 2023
Today I Met the Mothers, 2022
Passage No. 1, 2022
Passage No. 2, 2022
Doorway No. 1 - No. 4, 2021
Inner, 2023
In An Instant, 2022
Doorway No. 4 & No. 5, 2021
Mother Musa, 2022
Mother Musa
Banana Leaf Art by Kenniese S. Franklin
Mother Musa is a collection of sculptures and household objects made from banana fiber. The series investigates the banana tree’s historical and ongoing significance in mythology and ceremony.
Reception Room, 2023
Description
“keeper of ancestral stories”
In African, Asian and American cultures, Musa (the botanical name for the banana tree) is intergenerationally woven into healing arts, culinary arts, ceremonial rites and economic development. Mother Musa braids these histories together and names the banana plant keeper of ancestral stories.
Today I Met the Mothers
Today I Met The Mothers (2022) is a standing sculpture made from banana fiber hand-harvested in Georgia and Louisiana. The 78-inch sculpture marks the start of a mythological map-making series, born through collaboration between the artist, ancestral guides and the spirit of the banana tree.
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Image by Taylor Simone
