Threads Through Time/Weaving Cultural Identities
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Yukon Arts Centre Public Art Gallery 300 College Dr (PO Box 16), Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 5X9

"Threads Through Time/Weaving Cultural Identities," 2022
Threads Through Time is an extension of Weaving Cultural Identities as a collaborative exploration of weaving traditions and histories. For Threads Through Time, the Vancouver Biennale invited Indigenous and multi-ethnic weavers to engage in conversations about migration, colonization and the subsequent demarcations of unceded lands.
The weavers have created five individual woven works, channeling their experience of the land through the voices of their ancestors. Inspired by this dialogue and in honouring these experiences, a team of jacquard weavers and a Muslim graphic designer created a large border that holds these weavings together, culminating in a 31-by-15-foot rug. In this border, a poem by Muslim poet Efemeral is woven into the fabric in Arabic, reflecting the weavers’ acknowledgment of, and respect for, Muslim migrant experiences.
Weaving Cultural Identities was inspired by Paradise Has Many Gates, an installation by Saudi artist Ajlan Gharem that took the form of a mosque made from chain-link fencing. It was installed in Senáḵw - Vanier Park as part of the 2018-2020 Vancouver Biennale.
Weaving Cultural Identities brings together Indigenous and Islamic communities in a collaborative exploration of weaving traditions and histories, thereby unpacking uneasy issues of belonging, displacement, diaspora, the land, and identity.
The exhibition features 10 woven prayer rugs created by 10 Coast Salish Indigenous artists and 8 Muslim artists. The project is a visual manifest of prominent national dialogues surrounding the reconciliation of heritage, and the sharing and celebration of cultural knowledge, symbolism, and self-identification through textile traditions.
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