One in all life’s most troublesome duties is to look within the mirror—not simply to see a mirrored image, however to confront the alternatives that form who we’re. That sort of deep self-examination requires persistence, braveness, and, as a rule, discomfort. For Basil Kincaid, the exploration of self isn’t a passing section or philosophical pastime—it’s a necessity. His newest exhibition, Inward Cartography: Self of Selves, now on view at Library Avenue Collective in Detroit, is a placing meditation on the emotional and non secular terrain of id.
Identified for richly layered textile works, Kincaid pushes past conventional varieties to create items that function each portrait and course of. Quilting, embroidery, drawing, digital rendering—these components come collectively to create what he calls “fiber vignettes,” the place shade and composition come collectively to assist the viewer, and artist, with private evaluation.
Crafted between studios in St. Louis and Ghana, the work is formed by Kincaid’s fixed motion throughout bodily and psychological landscapes. He speaks overtly about how location impacts not simply his artwork, however how he sees himself, and the way he’s seen by others. “I’m how my life modifications and the notion of me modifications based mostly on the place I’m,” he defined. “There’s variations in how I’m perceived in [Missouri], if I’m simply strolling on the road versus how I’m perceived within the museum giving a speech—folks take a look at me and expertise me a method, after which the speedy expertise modifications their notion.”
That shifting view fuels lots of the themes behind Inward Cartography. Each bit begins with a drawing, goes via a cycle of digital manipulation in Photoshop, then is embroidered and stretched like a canvas. Kincaid sees these media not as disparate, however as a part of a continuum. “The best way that the work is made brings in questions on place and the way websites have an effect on the best way you assume and function and create,” the artist defined.
Kincaid’s hybrid technique can be a deliberate rejection of the hierarchies which have lengthy devalued sure supplies or routines. “Drawing is usually considered as a decrease type,” he famous. “However to me, it’s so foundational.” That sentiment extends to fiber artwork, which he insists deserves to be handled with the identical seriousness and depth as any so-called tremendous artwork. In Basil’s palms, the Jacquard loom—a binary system of weaving from the 1800s—turns into a strong metaphor for early computing, for construction, for storytelling.
“Arguments could possibly be made that developments in fiber artwork expertise led to a sort of social change in the best way that we expect that permits for the probabilities of computing and all these different issues that we expertise and rely upon,” Kincaid stated. “I really feel like we exist on this kind of Venn diagram of realities the place all people has a digital cyber avatar or multiples throughout completely different social apps; you create these simulacra of your self to current. As you create a picture of your self that you just assume is right and you place it into this thought house, it additionally impacts the best way that you just consider your self, and that may be constructive or unfavourable based mostly on the way you react to the societal conditioning or the social norms of every of these varied areas.”
Whereas Inward Cartography is deeply rooted in innovation, its core lies in what Kincaid calls “emotional defragmentation.” Very similar to a pc sorting its recordsdata to run extra effectively, Kincaid sifts via private recollections—each joyful and troublesome—and reassembles them with intention. “The toughest is dealing with your errors; stuff you really feel looking back you can have accomplished higher,” Basil shared. However as a substitute of compartmentalizing these recollections, he treats them as integral. Black shapes punctuate lots of the works, symbolizing not absence, however weight. “Whenever you attempt to overlook a foul reminiscence, you find yourself forgetting quite a lot of the recollections round it which will have additionally been good,” he added.
On this landmark effort, the viewer isn’t just observing Kincaid’s journey—they’re invited into their very own. “I wished this physique of labor to be much less about storytelling and extra about that technique of wandering and questioning; experiencing the wilderness of your self,” he stated. This openness makes the exhibition really feel much less like an “artwork present” and extra like a guided inner pilgrimage.
Literary influences—one thing newer in Basil’s inventive follow—additionally run via this physique of labor. Legacy Russell’s Glitch Feminism gave language to among the complexities Kincaid had been grappling with round multiplicity and existence. Octavia Butler, too, left a mark—not simply via her storytelling, however via her fierce creative self-discipline. “She had a transparent dedication that didn’t make room for excuses,” Kincaid mirrored. “That pushed me to dig even deeper and provides one other layer of myself.”
And that’s precisely what Self of Selves provides: an unguarded layering of thought, course of, and selfhood. The exhibition doesn’t search to pin down id, however to carry house for its contradictions. In a time after we typically really feel compelled to package deal and carry out ourselves—digitally, socially, culturally—Kincaid resists that pull. As a substitute, the artist stitches collectively a sequence of labor that’s as intellectually wealthy as it’s trustworthy.
“Artwork is meant to be the place of freedom,” Kincaid stated. And on this exhibition, that freedom pulses via each thread, each shadow, and each map drawn from life’s encounters.
Inward Cartography: Self of Selves is on view via Might 21, 2025 at Library Avenue Collective.
