ASJHA MALCOLM
Asjha Malcolm (she/hers) is a senior majoring in graphic design and painting at Boston University. Recalling her childhood and young adult experiences growing up in the Northeast coupled with imagery from a Jamaican-American upbringing all lend to a unique visual aesthetic prevalent in her digital, print, and painted works. Because of her interests in both painting and graphic design, she uses many of her projects to explore the way digital and craft can meet to yield a final form. Her goal is to continue making work that grabs people’s attention by pushing the boundaries often imposed upon graphic design and “fine art.” This is mostly done through staying open to incorporating multiple mediums into the work and making efforts to expand graphic design from a strictly digital space. When not designing, Asjha can be found drawing, walking an unnecessarily long route to any convenience store, or crocheting fairy dolls. As she finishes up her final year of undergrad, she will continue her painting and graphic design practices alongside each other with a focus on working with a studio or other artist space to foster creativity and collaboration with her peers.
Instagram: @jaaahjaaahhhhh
PICK UP THIS PRINT AT THE Harvard Science & Engineering Complex
ARTIST Q&A
Born: West Hartford, CT
Currently lives: Boston, MA
Title of artwork: The Machine Riso Prints, “Why” Poster
What’s it about? This poster is one poster out of a series of risograph posters based off of a hand drawn riso animation I made called “The Machine”. This animation was based off a typeface called Typefesse that has human-like appendages which ended up being a driving force for the concept and storyline of the whole piece. In “The Machine”, there is a type form made out of the letter w, h, y, and ?, all stacked on each other to form a giant mass. The word “why” is somewhat obscured in the distortion of the form and it’s added appendages. Throughout the short animation all the different letterforms are show powering up to perform the task of getting the right dot to complete the question mark. This is shown to be a repetitive task that seems almost aimless until finally the right dot comes out that is glowing orange and has the repeating word “why” on it. This is the same sphere featured on the why poster. The repetitive tasks that the machine was doing was a visualization of the pressures of productivity in our society and the inherent performance it. This animation was really fun to work not only because of the hand drawn animation but also because of the use of the risograph printer and how many design elements was able to be made from one aninmation.
Where else can we find your work? You can find my work on my instagrams
Where is your favorite public art piece in the area? I don’t know much about who made these works but there a a bunch of small mosaics in the sidewalks that you can see while walking through some neighborhoods in Cambridge which are fun to come across. My favorite is a small mosaic of a medusa looking figure.
Who is your favorite Boston-area artist to follow?Michael C Thorpe!
What’s your favorite way to spend a day off? Going to a bookshop or taking a walk to get some sun.
What was your top song for 2022? You the One Fish in the Sea by Liv.e
Favorite food spot in in Allston, Brighton or the surrounding area? Mecha
What have you learned about your creative practice in recent years? I’ve learned to notice everything around me, even something that is so specific and regular to me that otherwise I wouldn’t have given another thought. When you notice everything, everything has creative potential and possibilities are endless.
What is a piece of advice you would give to your past self as a young artist? Keep liking what you like and don’t think it’s weird 🙂
What is your dream project to work on? I would love to work on creating an artist run space with other artists just to continue fostering an area for artists to make and also for me to stay around other creatives and be inspired/ in the loop that way.
