Weaving Cultural Identities: Celebrating Heritage and Textile Traditions

Accès

À propos

This nationally-touring exhibition brings together artists and graphic designers of diverse Indigenous and Muslim backgrounds to collaborate on a series of textile artworks that celebrate the sacred, historic, and creative significance of prayer rugs and weaving traditions.

The project began with a series of questions: In a contemporary society of mixed cultures and values, how do we begin to navigate heritage and diverse beliefs? How do we share sacred space? How do we come together to understand each other’s experiences? What can we learn about ourselves from our inherited histories? What can we learn from each other?

In the co-creation of the exhibition, the artists developed a platform and process for community dialogue centred in discussions of belonging, forced displacement, diaspora, assimilation, and relationship to the land. The resulting series of prayer rugs became a spiritual conduit from past to present and between peoples and places, both near and far.

Through the integrated motifs and design elements, this exhibition will inspire visitors to explore their own cultural identities, while honouring ancestral legacies and celebrating inter-cultural connections.

Weaving Cultural Identities: Celebrating Heritage and Textile Traditions was curated by Zarina Laalo and commissioned as part of the 2018-2021 Vancouver Biennale, with touring support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council.

Guelph Museums’ presentation is funded in part by the Government of Canada, through the Museums Assistance Program – Exhibition Circulation Fund.

Organisateur

City of Guelph Museums & Culture

Museums and Culture at the City of Guelph exists to:

- Collect and protect artifacts, artworks and stories that reflect our community

- Share the collections and stories − locally, nationally and internationally − through exhibition, interpretation,

and online access

- Provide inclusive, accessible, interactive, and enlightening experiences

- Nurture interest and engagement in history, art and culture

- Cultivate a connection to place, with focus on the tangible and intangible cultural landscape unique to Guelph