Vibrant, Beaded Portraits by Felandus Thames Honor Memories and the Black Diaspora

2 hours ago7 min read

Felandus Thames works in a medium that sings, transforming thousands of colorful hair beads into vibrant, resonant portraits that feel less like static images and more like visual symphonies. He begins with historical photographs, often faded and forgotten, and through the meticulous, almost devotional act of beading, he resurrects the spirits of Black and Indigenous figures who have been systematically omitted from the grand American narrative.Think of it not as craft, but as composition—each bead a note, each color a chord, building toward a powerful crescendo that honors the Black diaspora and its sprawling, complex memories. The piece featuring dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey, for instance, doesn't just capture his likeness; it seems to capture the very rhythm of his movements, the beads cascading in a way that suggests the flow and grace of a modern dance piece.Similarly, his portrait of Amos Haskins, a 19th-century Wampanoag man, is a profound act of reclamation, using a material culture often associated with adornment to assert a presence and a history that written records have frequently ignored. This is art as counter-melody, a necessary and beautiful disruption to the dominant historical record.Thames’s process is inherently rhythmic and repetitive, much like the foundational beats in a classic soul record or the hypnotic patterns in a minimalist composition; it requires a deep, sustained focus that becomes a form of meditation and, ultimately, a form of testimony. The resulting works are tactile and luminous, demanding to be seen not from a distance but up close, where the individual elements coalesce into a stunning whole, much like how the separate instruments in an orchestra blend to create a single, moving piece of music.In an era where digital reproduction is effortless, Thames’s labor-intensive, hand-wrought technique is a powerful statement on the value of slow, deliberate creation and the enduring power of physical artifacts to carry cultural weight. His work joins a vital tradition of artists like Bisa Butler, who also use textiles to explore identity and history, proving that the stories we tell are often strongest when they are woven, stitched, or, in this case, beaded into being, creating a legacy that you can almost hear if you listen closely enough.

#featured

#Felandus Thames

#beaded portraits

#Black diaspora

#contemporary art

#memory

#underrepresented histories

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