Mixed Media Installation

Her Cabinet of Curiosities

Her Cabinet of Curiosities

Her Cabinet of Curiosities

Photo: Shafeek Nalakath Kareem, courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation

This work uses textiles as a medium that attend to the suppressed presence of women within archaeology and other representations of human history. For Sharjah Biennial 16, this work gestures towards the political motivations shaping science and the construction of gender within human history, using the case study of an excavation that started in 2003 in the Liang Bua cave in Flores, Indonesia. The fossils Indicated a new species of human, the Homo Floresiensis, who lived from 60,000 tο 100,000 years ago.

Her Cabinet of Curiosities (2024) was created with insight gleaned from field study trips to learn from the women of Flores about their deep connections to the earth and to weaving culture. The installation contains fabric replicas of fossil bones and other archaeological artefacts hand-stitched in a laboratory setting, challenging the marginalization of Indigenous communities and so-called 'women's knowledge by relocating them into the realm of scientific research.

Caption written by: Alia Swastika, 2024

In collaboration with Mama Kristina Meti, Mesayu Ariza Puspita, Awanda Brima Destia, Marylin Jessica Wibowo, Levinthius Herlyanto and N Sabar Oktavani. Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation and CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile), Hong Kong.

Year

2024

DIMENSION

Dimension Varies

MATERIAL

Calico fabric, yarn with natural and synthetic dyes, dacron, synthetic cotton, lace, woven textile from Flores, stainless steel wire, balsa and pine wood

EXHIBITION

Sharjah Biennial 19: To Carry

6 February 15 June 2025

Curator

Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala, Zeynep Öz

Venue

Bait Al Serkal, Sharjah City, United Arab Emirates

Photo courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation

Photo: Shafeek Nalakath Kareem, courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation

Photo: Shafeek Nalakath Kareem, courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation

Photo courtesy of Salima Hakim

Photo courtesy of Sharjah Art Foundation

Photo courtesy of Salima Hakim

Photo courtesy of Salima Hakim

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