PRESS RELEASE
THONTON KABEYA: MISSILE BLUES
Oct 8 – Oct 29, 2025
MISSILE BLUES a solo exhibition by Thonton Kabeya
Opening reception: Wednesday 8th October - 6pm
Walkabout: Saturday 11th October - 11:30am
Cornrows are more than hairstyles.
They tell stories.
They declare social status.
They signify ethnic identity.
Hidden within the braids and within fabrics such as the raffia cloth of the Luba people, my ancestral lineage, exists a coded language with a rich and mysterious history. I am proud to translate this artistic and spiritual heritage for the modern observer.
We free our bodies to dance, like Capoeira.
We keep our spirits to connect, like Voodoo.
We free our minds to design, like Raffia.
For my ancestors, these designs were never only aesthetic. They carried a secret code, a tool of survival and liberation. In colonial Colombia, cornrows became maps. Slaves, denied pencil and paper, became cartographers, etching escape routes onto their heads.
A coiled braid indicated a mountain.
Snake-like braids signalled rivers.
Thick braids warned of soldiers ahead.
From forehead to nape, the hair carried the journey: from where they stood, to where freedom waited. Women even hid matches, grains of gold, and seeds within their braids, objects that would help them start anew after escape.
These maps were visible to all, yet legible only to the initiated.
Free your mind.
Free your body.
Never free your spirit.
Guide it, don’t follow it.
Use it, don’t be used by it.
I am because we are.
We are because they came.
