Connecting Threads: Africa Fashion in Chicago
Immersive Gallery Experience | Field Museum
My Role
Creative Direction
Cinematography
Editing
Cross-disciplinary Collaboration
Overview
For the Connecting Threads: Africa Fashion in Chicago exhibition at the Field Museum, I developed a multimedia fashion film featuring designer Jennifer Akese-Burney. The exhibition explores how contemporary African designers draw from cultural heritage while creating work that speaks to the present moment. The curatorial team sought a dynamic storytelling element that could help visitors connect historic artifacts from the museum’s Africa collection with contemporary fashion practice.
The Challenge
The exhibition positioned fashion as a bridge between historical artifacts and contemporary design, but these relationships are often experienced separately within museum contexts. Artifacts are typically viewed as static historical objects, while fashion is encountered as contemporary expression. The challenge was to create a visual narrative that could connect museum artifacts with living design practice and engage visitors through cinematic storytelling within an exhibition setting.
Creative Direction & Production
I developed the creative direction for the multimedia fashion film and led the production, filming, and editing of the piece. Working closely with designer Jennifer Akese-Burney, I shaped a narrative structure that highlighted both her garments and her creative process, emphasizing the cultural and conceptual foundations of her work.
The film was designed as a visual bridge between past and present. Artifact detail shots from the museum’s Africa collection were interwoven with Akese-Burney’s contemporary fashion designs, creating a layered visual dialogue that emphasized continuity rather than separation. Through cinematic composition and intentional sequencing, the work reveals how historical objects inform modern creative expression.
Visual Storytelling Approach
The film uses cinematic framing and rhythmic editing to establish connections between material culture and contemporary design. Rather than presenting artifacts and fashion as distinct categories, the narrative places them in conversation—allowing visual motifs, textures, and patterns to resonate across time.
Key storytelling strategies included:
Juxtaposition: Pairing artifact details with contemporary garments to reveal visual and conceptual parallels
Material dialogue: Highlighting texture, pattern, and craftsmanship across eras
Narrative continuity: Structuring the film to emphasize flow between historical inspiration and modern interpretation
Artist-centered storytelling: Grounding the narrative in Akese-Burney’s creative process and perspective
Collaboration
This project was developed in close collaboration with the curatorial team and designer Jennifer Akese-Burney to ensure cultural integrity, narrative clarity, and alignment with the exhibition’s interpretive goals. Akese-Burney’s participation was central to the storytelling approach, providing insight into how heritage informs her contemporary design practice. The curatorial collaboration helped shape the selection of artifacts and ensured that the visual connections between objects and garments were meaningful, accurate, and contextually grounded.
Visitor Experience
Presented within the exhibition, the film functions as a connective narrative layer that deepens visitor engagement with both the museum’s Africa collection and contemporary fashion design. By moving between artifact and garment, the film encourages visitors to see cultural heritage not as static history, but as an active and evolving influence on contemporary creativity.
Using cinematic structure to bridge museum artifacts and fashion design, Connecting Threads creates a layered narrative that emphasizes continuity, cultural dialogue, and the ongoing influence of heritage in modern creative expression.
