2018
Wool and Canvas
Solo Show ‘Being Somewhere Else’
Ikon Gallery, UK
But Mother, I can read
all that you write
on leaves in the forest,
on the waters of the sea,
and in the ledger of the sky.
Let them call me illiterate.
“Ink on my Face, Ink on my Hands”
Kazi Nazrul Islam
Predating the invention of writing, migration is a theme that connects the diverse histories that make up the collective story of humanity. One of the keepers of this story of migration is textiles; languages can change, religions can change, politics can change, but weaving patterns, passed on through oral and tactile traditions across borders and generations change far more slowly and are carriers of a shared history. There is Individual agency even within the most traditional fabric patterns as people use and adapt them to signal the place they want to hold in society
Extract from Essay “People not Shadows” by Diane Campbell Betancourt
for Osman Yousefzada solo show “Being Somewhere Else” Catalogue, 2018.
