The Diaspora Scroll is a growing textile book that deconstructs myths of nationalism and local traditions through the embroidery patterns, which depict personal histories of migration, and the creation process, which facilitates transcultural exchange. The project takes the form through the sourcing, analysis of textile art, design, and techniques around the world, as well as through collaborative embroidery. Collaborating textile artists are invited to contribute to the project by sharing their perspectives, skills, and insights. The installation creates a deconstruction of local national myths through historical embroidery loaned from local museums, as well as sound bites featuring various perspectives of textile historians, restaurateurs, and craftswomen.
Textiles represent the iconographic and ornamental expressions of their respective civilizations. Due to their portability, they also represent the geographic and historical paths by which the techniques and design employed in their creation have traveled from one civilization to another through time. The Diaspora Scroll project employs textile art as a resource to understand the historical cross-pollination between cultures and as a mode for creating cultural hybridity. In a world characterized by the rise of divisions over culture, class and identity, a better understanding of cultural fluidity is aimed at countering nationalism and fostering a dialogue across borders.
Concept and artistic direction by Azra Aksamija.
Project research team: Joshua Jest, Lillian Kology, Melina Philippou.
Installation design: James Addison, Azra Aksamija.
Pattern and animation design: Azra Aksamija.
Pattern production: Blanca Abramek, James Addison, Natalie Bellefleur, Stephanie Lee, Calvin Zhong.
Animation production: James Addison, Calvin Zhong.
Hand embroidery: Sajra Burnić, Barbara Edlinger, Barbara Ertl-Leitgeb, Ingrid Frühwirth, Sophia Giordano, Alan Kakja, Lillian Kology, Christine Ruß.
Sound-bites: Roswitha Orac-Stipberger, Munira Aksamija.
Thanks to: Emma De Ro and the team of Kunsthaus Graz.
Participatory project, embroidery, sound, digital animation
Project commissioned by the Kunsthaus Graz, AT, for the exhibition Faith Love Hope, curated by Katrin Bucher Trantow,
Johannes Rauchenberger and Barbara Steiner–an exhibition to mark ‘800 Years of the Graz-Seckau Diocese’ together with KULTUM – the Minorities’ Cultural Centre, and in cooperation with Alte Galerie, Neue Galerie Graz, Folk Life Museum
Materials: Wood, white cotton cloth, sound, 4 digital animations, participatory embroidery, thread made in China
Dimensions: Loom: 2 x 10.1 x 2.9 m; Cloth: 20 m; animations single-channel 4 min. each