Every morning Joana Choumali wakes up at dawn and takes a walk, observing the land and buildings, shapes slowly revealing themselves, the streets and people awakening. As the morning light slowly makes every detail of the material world visible, she becomes aware of a shift in her thoughts and perceptions. Her morning stroll becomes a ritual of introspection.
During her walks she takes pictures of the landscape. Afterwards, using a mixed technique of collage, embroidery, painting, and photomontage, she superimposes onto the photographs several layers of ethereal fabrics, intertwined with silhouettes of passers-by. The result is a delicate and dreamy toile which evokes invisible meanings and revelations from the artist’s morning experiences
Choumali has exhibited her work around the world. In 2014, she won the Cap Prize Award and the Emerging Photographer LensCulture Award. In 2016, she received the Magnum Emergency Grant Foundation, and the Fourthwall Books Award in South Africa. In 2017, she exhibited her series Translation and Adorn at the Pavilion of the Ivory Coast during the 57th Venice International Biennale. In November 2019, she became the first African winner of the Eight Prix Pictet for her series Ça va aller on the theme of ‘Hope’. Her work has been published in the international press : CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, El Pais, Le Monde, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, Harper Bazaar Art, The Financial Times. Her book HAABRE, was published and edited in Johannesburg in 2016.
Joana Choumali was recently named 2020 Robert Gardner Fellow in Photography by The Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University, United States. Joana’s work is included in many public museums and private collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum Collection, the Prix Pictet Collection, the Societé Generale Abidjan Collection, the Harry David Art Collection, the Schulting Art Collection and the Matthias + Gervanne Leridon Art Collection.