{"id":3062,"date":"2025-11-18T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=3062"},"modified":"2025-11-18T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T20:30:00","slug":"vibrant-beaded-portraits-by-felandus-thames-honor-memories-and-the-black-diaspora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=3062","title":{"rendered":"Vibrant, Beaded Portraits by Felandus Thames Honor Memories and the Black Diaspora"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Vibrant,<\/p>\n

From thousands of colorful hair beads, Felandus Thames<\/a> conjures vibrant patterns and portraits. He takes historical photographs as a starting point, focusing especially on Black and Indigenous figures whose stories have largely been underrepresented in American historical narrative. These include dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey<\/a> and Amos Haskins<\/a>, a 19th-century Wampanoag man who became a master mariner\u2014one of the few Indigenous people to do so.<\/p>\n

Based in West Haven, Connecticut, Thames emphasizes powerful associations with materials. In the case of these portraits, he employs beads frequently used to style braids. Recent projects also include installations incorporating multiple hairbrushes. \u201cLately, I\u2019ve been thinking about the affordances of material and their ability to necessitate an idea,\u201d Thames tells Colossal. \u201cI\u2019ve been mining materials from my childhood,\u201d he adds, delving into memories that connect him and others within the Black diaspora.<\/p>\n

\"a
Untitled (2025), (portrait of Alvin Ailey), hair beads on coated wire and aluminum rod, 60 x 41 x 4 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

These materials reference both historical and contemporary functions, from the use of beads and shells as currency in early societies to the way a beaded curtain was separated different areas within Thames\u2019 childhood home. \u201cIn these works, I offer the everyday as cultural currency,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Thames describes the mass-produced plastic components as \u201cBlack pixels,\u201d akin to pieces of fabric patchworked together to form a quilt. A creative practice his maternal ancestors also pursued, quilting provides another \u201cway of speaking to how carry memory with us,\u201d he says. The neatly beaded strands, suspended from aluminum rods, also become almost fabric-like.<\/p>\n

In his recent work, Thames has been interested in the Black radical tradition<\/a>, a philosophy that rejects colonial attitudes, such as slavery, racial segregation, and other forms of oppression. The Black Panthers and the civil rights movement evolved around this philosophy, with more recent examples including the Black Lives Matter<\/a> movement.<\/p>\n

For Thames, Black radical tradition is \u201ca form of resistance and insurgency\u201d by people who took great leaps and made lasting change. \u201cMy focus gets beyond the outlier or exceptional individual, but thinking about people who have fostered sustainable change to the apparatus,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"an
\u201cAfrican King of Dubious Origins\u201d (2022), hair beads on coated wire and aluminum rod, 48 x 78 1\/4 x 4 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thames\u2019 portraits exemplify changes or behavior that created something akin to what he calls a \u201cscaffolding for substantive change.\u201d Surrounded by vibrant patterns, their likenesses, often drawn from black-and-white archival photos, become timeless.<\/p>\n

\u201cWail on Whalers (portrait of Amos Haskin)\u201d is currently part of Entwined: Freedom, Sovereignty, and the Sea<\/em>, which continues through January 19 at the Mystic Seaport Museum<\/a>. Thames\u2019 work is also currently on view in the group exhibition EXODUS <\/em>at the Wellin Museum of Art<\/a> at Hamilton College, which continues through April 18, 2026. See more on the artist\u2019s website<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"a
\u201cJubilee\u201d (2025), hair beads on coated wire with aluminum rod, 84.x 48 x 4 inches
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cBelieved to be Jenny Freeman in her Sunday\u2019s best\u201d (2024-2025), plastic beads, coated wire, and aluminum, 92 1\/2 x 60 x 4 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cKing David of Harlem\u201d (2024), beads on coated wire with aluminum rod, 85 3\/4 x 48 x 4 inches. Photo by John Bentham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a<\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Vibrant, Beaded Portraits by Felandus Thames Honor Memories and the Black Diaspora<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From thousands of colorful hair beads, Felandus Thames conjures vibrant patterns and portraits. He takes historical photographs as a starting point, focusing especially on Black and Indigenous figures whose stories…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}