A feast for the eyes
In Shepparton It Began Like This… (cushion title)
The Australian Afghani Embroidery Project was initiated by Director, Kirsten Paisley in close consultation with artist and refugee activist, Kate Durham. Supported by gallery staff, over fifty Afghani and Australian women participated in monthly workshops in the year long project. The initial aim was to work collaboratively to develop a site-specific exhibition, highlighting not only the embroidery skills within our community but perhaps more importantly, a wider appreciation of feminine cultural forms and material heritage. Bridging the cultural and social divide between participants involved not only overcoming language barriers but also differences in the level of skill, approach and creative technique from within.
The exhibition, Sewing All The Way To Here, consists of four rooms lined with small, soft cushions, intimate tableaus and painted portraits, as well as commentary and first person narration by Durham. It pays homage to the cultural traditions and the transitions made by women who participated in the monthly workshops at Shepparton Art Gallery. Blending traditional Afghani and Australian embroidery with contemporary art practice, Kate Durham’s art works serve as both a narrative and testimony of the exchange that took place for the duration of the project.
Durham’s art work is arranged along a metre-wide band of sombre grey, featuring a loose progression of textile works, sombre, dimly lit portraits and fragments of text. Forming the entrance to the exhibition, this display contrasts dramatically with a curtain of bright pink fabric, defining a second exhibition space ‘the pink room’. Aglow with colour, inside this space, a variety of textured, machine and hand-embroidered cushions, point to the collective nature of the project. This is also evident in a selection of photographic images printed onto cushions. In addition, a short documentary video allows for quite an intimate understanding of the project, reiterating the importance of social outcomes and community engagement for participants.
While one of aims of the project was to document our progress at each workshop, Kate was also transferring photographic portraits of the Afghani women directly onto fabric. The most successful of these are made with photocopies, using turpentine to transfer images directly onto fabric. Varied stitching follow outlines of faces and folds of draped garments, giving emphasis to curved female figures and faces of Afghani women. While they are not necessarily distinct, they form a powerful leitmotif that is used repeatedly in portraying participants both as dignified individuals and as a distinct cultural group.
Adjoining these two spaces, a selection of hand-made garments and handkerchiefs made by women now living in Shepparton, feature heavily embroidered khamak designs. While no two patterns are identical, the use of white silk embroidery patterned onto white cotton is emblematic of Afghani culture. Painstakingly created as gifts to members of their families, a man’s shirt, handkerchief or a woman’s shawl or dress can take several months of meticulous sewing to complete. While lending itself to the most stringent scrutiny, the geometry emphasizes pattern and texture by reflecting a shimmering light.
This austerity in design is evident in other traditional pieces in the exhibition where deep shades of blue or bold green provide a solid background of colour for the white silk embroidery. A child’s dress made with heavily beaded patterns across the bodice and hemmed in a wide band of gold brocade exemplifies the importance of colour in Afghani dress and design. Less geometric yet equally as bold, khamak embroidery celebrates colour with broader expanses of solid stitching. Scarlet, vermillion, royal blue, deep purple, bright yellow and emerald green are just some of colours used for both floral motifs and garments worn to the workshops, which increasingly, seemed to become more vibrant.
Located in the pink room and inside another enclosed room, each area representing the sphere of domestic space, brightly patterned cushions are pinned directly onto the wall. Some explore well-known Australian motifs such as a koala, flag and map although others maintain strong links with traditional designs and some simpler cross stitching. Using softer and generally more subdued colour and patterning, Australian embroiderers often appear cautious and curious in their application of technique and other design elements.
Although influenced by the bold simplicity of Afghani embroidery, Kate’s numerous cushions, paintings and panels of text and patterns are loosely sewn and grouped. Seemingly joined by threads or streams of consciousness, pictorial, textural, decorative and discursive fragments simultaneously describe situations and interactions between Australian and Afghani women.
For instance, the title piece, Sewing All The Way To Here… is one of several written motifs repeated with several variations onto white or pink cushions. A stitched outline of a young Afghani woman sewing is expressed with disarming innocence. On other cushions, Every Stitch Mends… suggests a sense of calm and healing arising from displacement as a refugee. An accompanying hand written narration explains that ‘pillows and cushions are objects of care and comfort, which is why the women produce them’.
In the scatter of cushions entitled, Home Away From Home, less restraint is evident. In both Durham’s application of visual language and the exhibition design, she uses material fragments to create another layer of meaning. Here, there is also a distinct lack of colour. Featuring Afghani motifs, bold outlines of silver, or patterns of grey or black stitching on white, the only excess of colour is the soft pink and occasional shimmer of pale blue. Traces of despair and uncertainty are depicted in black ink writing. Surrounding panels also feature torn fragments of silver damask or black lace, scatters of buttons, selections of pearled beads, overlays of netting or organza, faded fabrics with disorderly combinations of machine and hand embroidery to represent Afghani people, symbols and landscapes.
Adding a filmic or montage-like quality is another narrative seam. Small, intimate and at times comical scenes depict women sewing. The paintings hint at the difficulty of exchange; unable to maintain eye contact, shrouded in darkness or uncertainty, figures stare silently into space. In her final commentary Durham reflects on our own cultural practices. Rather sadly, she writes, that while ‘all the women sew for joy… I think we paint to understand… and we never do...’
In viewing this exhibition we witness a visual feast of embroideries and images but by our own observations, we can’t ignore the cultural and social isolation encountered by Afghani refugees in Australia. Whilst, exchanges between Afghani and Australian women in Shepparton have just begun to overcome a lack of common language or culture, Durham’s sketches and notes are as from a distant observer. While she acknowledges the difficulty of the project, nevertheless, she maintains a glimmer of hope that we continue to engage in one another’s lives. This community project aspires to sow the seeds, of a sense of place and identity in a new country.
