Mazloomi's quilts are narrative, graphic, and pictorial. She employs a variety of techniques, including a printing process to transfer her drawings onto fabric, painting, appliqué, and quilting. The works are finished and framed with patchwork borders with geometric patterns.
Channeling the black-and-white photographs that documented the Civil Rights Movement, the black-and-white quilt works on view in the exhibition include layered portraits of Fannie Lou Hamer, John Lewis, James Baldwin, Ida B. Wells, and Henrietta Lacks. “Ode to Harriet Powers: Mother of African American Quilting,” (2024) portrays artist Harriet Powers (1837-1910) against a backdrop that replicates one of her Bible-themed quilts. Born into slavery, Powers created extraordinary story quilts in the 1880s and 1890s.
“Voting Rights” (2024) features sign-carrying protesters in the foreground with voters lining up to cast their ballots in the background. A composite image, “Strange Fruit #3” (2024), pictures Billie Holiday belting out one of her most well-known songs alongside the disturbing symbols referenced in her lyrics: Black bodies hanging from trees before an audience of hooded Ku Klux Klan members.
“Hands Up...Don’t Shoot #2” (2024) is an American flag-inspired work that speaks to the historic brutality endured by people of color. The flag’s “stars” are replaced by 50 figures with their hands raised above their heads. The names of nearly 100 Black and Brown people killed by police are listed on the red stripes with a schematic of enslaved Africans crammed in a ship’s hold during the Middle Passage appearing on the white stripes.
