Portrait of multidisciplinary visual artist, poet and writer Salma Khalil Alio
Design Indaba
Cape Town, South Africa
Chadian multidisciplinary visual artist, poet and writer Salma Khalil was selected by Design Indaba to take part in our collaborative initiative with Google Arts & Culture, titled Colours of Africa. Africa is known for its bold, unapologetic use of colour. Stories are told in pigments, tones and hues; a kaleidoscope as diverse as the cultures and peoples of the continent. For the initiative, we asked 60 African creatives to capture the unique spirit of their country in a colour which represents home to them. The projects they have created are personal and distinct stories of Africa, put into images, videos, texts and illustrations. Each artist has also attempted to articulate what being African means to their identity and view of the world.
- Title: Portrait of multidisciplinary visual artist, poet and writer Salma Khalil Alio
- Original Source: Design Indaba
- What it Means to be African: To be African means to be strong in admitting what I am, accepting my story, my colour, my language and my hair. It is to be connected to my ancestral philosophy and to share this with the world by expressing it through my creations.
- Subject: Salma Khalil
- Rationale: I discovered this colour during my workshops and research with the Kotoko, the earliest Chadian civilisation. The women who are part of this community are potters and designers, and they decorate their homes with natural pigments that they create themselves. While I was with the women of Kotoro, I experimented with these natural pigments. I mixed the juice of the kola nut with aged clay and gum arabic, sometimes including beetroot and changing the tones of the colour with smoke from a fire. I fell in love with this pigment. This colour carries the spirit of a civilisation, a culture and a nation. I use it often in my creations. I am connected to this colour, just like I am to earth and its texture. It echoes the colour of the Saharan Chadian landscape.
- Project: Colors of Africa
- Location: Chad
- Lead Quote: I am connected to this colour, just like I am to earth and its texture. It echoes the colour of the Saharan Chadian landscape.
- Hex Code: 4F1C16
- Colour Choice: le Rouge Ocre
- Biography: Salma Khalil is a multidisciplinary visual artist, poet and writer from Chad. She uses local products, including recycled materials and natural pigments, to create paintings inspired by the traditional crafts of the Kotoko people in southwestern Chad. At the age of two Khalil and her family were forced to flee from Chad because her father, the former leader of the National Liberation Front Chad Khalil Alio, was being persecuted by the government of Hissène Habré. She grew up in Marburg, Germany, until the family moved to Maiduguri, Nigeria in the late 1990s. In 1999 she returned to Chad for the first time and began to study science in Farcha, N’Djamena. Khalil holds a master's degree in urban geography from the University of N'Djamena. In her work, she combines graphic design, photojournalism, painting and computer graphics. She shares her work and cultural insights on her home country on a dedicated online platform named Chadian Artist. Her work largely focuses on social issues. Khalil’s passion for photography began in 2006, and since then she has participated in many workshops with local and international photographers. With the support of the Cooperation and Cultural Action Service (SCAC) and the French Embassy in Chad, Khalil worked on a collection titled “Portraits of Chadian Women”, a photographic project to promote the potential of Chadian women and throughout the territory. The exhibition has been shown around Chad and abroad.
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