Had It All Figured Out
SAMAH AL ANSARI
The kanga, also known as ‘leso’, is a printed cloth made of cotton that is commonly used by women all over the East Coast of Africa and the Middle East.
Growing up, I saw my grandmother and mother wearing the kanga and I have always been fascinated by the colours and patterns. I was curious about what the proverbial inscription meant and why text was printed on it.
I have been reflecting on the idea of the traditional kanga and translating it onto global cultures by implementing my own personal illustrative style and combining modern elements of pattern whilst following the original design structure. I’ve been reflecting on this further by adding English and Arabic and messages that are globally relatable and testing out whether the idea of silent communication could work in other parts of the world.
This specific kanga design holds the message ‘هذه الحياة نخطط لها؛ وتخطط لنا’. The concept of this kanga design was to highlight the way we think and how we usually plan out our future and hope that everything goes the way we want it to. However, life comes at us when we least expect it, sometimes with good news and sometimes bad. The design of this kanga is personal to me, as I am very career-oriented by nature, and had planned that I would be working as an architect after my undergrad. But things took a sudden shift and I found myself traveling across the country to do an MA in Graphic Arts four years later.
In the animation, I wanted to celebrate how this change has really helped me find myself creatively and also realize how much I’ve grown and how exhausted I was at that 9-5 job which I hated.
Samah Al Ansari is an illustrator and graphic designer from Muscat, Oman. with an MA in Graphic Arts from the University of the West of England. Most of her work is inspired by local culture, where she explores elements of pattern and celebrates women and femininity, ranging from animations to prints to homeware accessories.
Her most recent project was studying the method of silent communication through the kanga fabric, by women in the Eastern parts of Africa. where she recreated kangas and explored if this method could be reflected in other global cultures.
Instagram: @samah.ansari