Passionate about history and aesthetics, this collaboration with Dear Kathiopae was obvious to us. More than just a collaboration, it seems to me that we have recognized each other as travelers of time and of the earth. My meeting with Aïcha was an aesthetic love at first sight, but not only. Her attachment to searching like an archaeologist in the ancient symbols of African countries and to valuing the craftsmanship as well as the raw materials of the countries concerned awakened in me a fascination for her quasi-hypnotic jewelry.
The Adinkra collection, which combines the supports and influences of Ancient Egypt with Ghanaian aphorisms (Akan and Baoulé) spoke to me so much that we therefore decided together to offer products declined and related to my universe. For this Mangeusedherbe / Dear Katiopae capsule, I wanted to mix the various influences that today constitute West Indian culture. Africans deported from several parts of Africa, who have been able to resist, transmit and make survive many of our current treasures, the Indians who have come to become the new workforce to be exploited, who have strongly influenced the Caribbean. I myself grew up in a family made up of all these influences including Europeans, Arawaks, Indians and Africans. My grandfather practiced yoga in its most sacred form and ate a vegan diet including flowers. I was immersed in practices, flavors, sounds that allowed me to reconnect with its multiple identities and during my transition to veganism allowed me to draw incredible resources from them to sublimate traditional dishes. This curiosity for the roots of dishes and the unique ingredients that compose them told me a story that allowed me to understand myself. The nose jewels were then transmitted to me by the representation of the Caribbean Indians, but in my search for meaning and through multiple research, I realized that this way of decorating his body was far from being characteristic of 'one culture.
The falsification, or invisibilization of the culture of one for the benefit of the other is an imperialist technique of the West to reduce the culture of others and thus create a hierarchy of ethnicities. Asia having the prerogative of spirituality, an ambiguous fascination. Africa when it is associated with the terms: tribal, savage, primitive. Stereotypes based on domination and on the idea of an impossible African devoid of civilization such as the Kemite Egypt denied since the 1950s by Western Egyptologists who inherit and propagate the "scientific racism" of their system. Questioning the source or possible traces of pre-colonial Africa is precious and essential. What can be attributed to a little at times is a lost treasure of Afro-descendants. Know the Africa of yesterday to know the Diapora of today, its legitimacy and its greatness, because as Cheikh A.Diop says let us not forget that Africa has to civilize Europe twice. It also teaches us the commercial links with the so-called dark red (Indian) ethins in Pharaonic times and shows that this ethnicity belongs to only one. These similar codes, which are found beyond adornments, are expressed through multiple objects such as Kemetic yoga, or by the Maatic and Karmic beliefs common to many ancient Kemite peoples. Here, the point is not to know who did what first, but to understand the deep connections, and the strong influences that these peoples share. To celebrate ourselves as we deserve it, because it is our heritage. The false piercings of the Dear Kathiope capsule inspire me with a resonance of the past combining the ornamental methods of the ancients who mix the powerful symbolism of the Adinkras motifs and the elegance of the multiple and varied populations that have come together once again. more in the Caribbean and their identity is made to survive. The variation of the patterns in short earrings tells the story of the accumulation of precious knowledge to be celebrated on a daily basis. Short history of nose piercing.
It would appear that it was the Emperors of the Mughal Dynasty who brought this practice to India, and it was quickly assimilated into the culture. It then became a way of honoring the goddess Parvati, the one ruling over marriages, and 16-year-old girls had their noses pierced, being fit for marriage. Placed on the left nostril of women, it was supposed to make childbirth easier. The septum piercing has multiple tribal origins among Indian dancers, especially among the Kuchipudi and Bharatnatyam. Bengal women wear the nathori as an attribute of married women. The latter is usually in the form of a gold ring with a pendant in the shape of a drop that can move on the ring. Nevertheless, archaeological discoveries show traces of piercing from the Neolithic era in Africa, and particularly in Egypt and Ethiopia. Mummies or sculptures bear witness to the modifications imposed by certain members of these ancient societies. Piercings were mostly on the ears, nose or lips, and marked membership of a royal blood caste. A tradition found in some African tribes where the larger the ring worn, the greater the fortune of the family of the wearer.
Charlotte
