Stitching Light - produced by E.E.A
A new sound and light installation amplifying the lives and histories of Bangladeshi women living in Tower Hamlets comes to Canary Wharf Light festival, in London, UK on Tuesday 21st January to Saturday 1st February.
Paraa directed the development of the project and it will tour the UK in 2025.
Produced by Emergency Exit Arts with Creative Director Ruhul Abdin in partnership with Oitij-jo, Paraa and the Migration Museum, Stitching Light আলো দিয়ে গাথা gathers real life experiences of Bangladeshi women who've migrated to England and weaves their stories together into an immersive sound and light installation. The installation is a series of panels, hand stitched with light thread, and hand painted murals designed by folk artist Baten in Bangladesh. Stitching Light has a commissioned soundpiece by Siaminium, an electronic sound artist who’s also based in Bangladesh. Siam worked with sounds and textures the women reflected upon, along with the women’s words.
Creative Process
EEA was keen to collaborate with Paraa, as Paraa’s work followed their ethos of community engagement and also boldness in aspirations to use art as a tool. A process driven project that already had a tentative desired output which both EEA and Paraa thought was an exciting challenge. So as part of the process, the Oitij-jo Collective was also invited to collaborate, with their years of experience working with the British Bangladeshi community in East London. A series of workshops focussed on exploring and understanding the women’s lived experiences between Bangladesh and East London. This created a moment in time, where the women were able to talk, craft, visualise, draw and share amongst their peers stories that often are not given an opportunity to be heard. This particular approach enabled, over the weeks, conversations that many of the women shared perhaps for the first time in their adult lives. At the same time, this provided Paraa a rich repository of information, from drawings, models, songs, narratives, games, that quickly took form, over multiple iterations, into art.
The women shared stories of their lives in Bangladesh and Tower Hamlets, some of the difficulties they encountered in transitioning to their new lives as well as childhood games and memories. The workshop participants expressed how powerful and empowering the project has been for them, they loved being able to talk about themselves and their shared histories in a way they have never done before.
Their experiences have been translated into 3m high textile panels by designer Shihab Mahmud Baten who is based in Bangladesh. Light thread has also been stitched into the designs and a soundscape was created combining the voices of the women and traditional music and sounds that remind them of home. The panels have then been arranged within a purpose-built 3 metre, 3D structure which the audience can walk through and around to immerse themselves in these stories. The Migration Museum is working in the partnership to make sure the stories are carefully collected to form part of their permanent collection.
OUTPUT & IMPACT
The project output is multi-layered, addressing the potential of traditional Bangladeshi crafts as art, the need for archiving the histories of British Bangladeshi women in a creative form, yet capturing and sensitively listening to the stories of the women and to produce an installation that reflects childhood memories, as well as celebrating the women. A craft the project celebrates is the Nakshi kantha stitch - a centuries old traditional practice in a subtle, innovative way as well as celebrating Bangladeshi folk painting, and how folk artists can tell contemporary stories as well.
Stitching Light is produced by Emergency Exit Arts, with Ruhul Abdin as Creative Director in partnership with Oitij-jo, Paraa, Migration Museum. It is made possible with support from Canary Wharf and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Press event: Stitching Light is at Canary Wharf, Wren Landing, London, E144QJ
Date: Tuesday 21st January 5pm – 7pm
MEDIA WISHING TO ATTEND SHOULD EMAIL [email protected]
NOTES TO THE EDITOR
More on Emergency Exit Arts www.eea.org.uk
Founded 1980, Emergency Exit Arts (EEA) creates work that enables people, enhances places and astonishes audiences.
Speaking about Stitching Light, Emergency Exit Arts CEO Daniel Bernstein said ““Emergency Exit Arts are so excited about Stitching Light. It exemplifies everything we like to do. To tell meaningful stories from people whose voices are seldom heard to create a beautiful artwork that is seen by hundreds of thousands of people. We can’t wait for Canary Wharf Lights and for the reaction to this important piece of work.”
Stitching Light আলো দিয়ে গাথা is a year-long national arts and heritage programme, which will tour in 2025 visiting communities and light festivals across the country including Bradford, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Worcester and Salford. Bangladeshi women across the country will be engaged to tell their stories.
About Canary Wharf Winter Lights festival
Canary Wharf Group has commissioned Stitching Light alongside 11 other temporary commissions. It is free for the public from 21st Jan-1st Feb 5pm-10pm
About Paraa www.paraa.org
Paraa is a research-based design and architecture studio, focusing on enhancing lives and spaces with the communities in Bangladesh and beyond through multi-disciplinary practice.
Ruhul Abdin, founder of Paraa says ”This is such an important piece of work, as Bangladeshi women’s stories are so rarely captured and explored in this way”
About Oitij-jo Collective www.oitij-jo.org
Oitij-jo is dedicated to providing platforms for creative practitioners to collaborate & enhance British/Bangla engagement with wider global communities. Shama Kun, Textile artist and workshop leader says: “It has been so amazing working with this group of Bangladeshi women in Tower Hamlets. The impact has been greater than anything we first imagined.”
About the Migration Museum:
The Migration Museum explores how the movement of people to and from the UK across the ages has made us who we are – as individuals, communities and as nations. Liberty Melly, Head of Learning for Migration Museum says: “Stitching Light is an important project for the Migration Museum, as we seek to collect, preserve and platform stories and experiences of people migrating to the UK that might otherwise be hidden or lost, shining a light on underrepresented groups such as Bangladeshi women’s stories.”
For any media interviews etc please contact [email protected]
@EEALondon | #stitchinglight | www.eea.org.uk/events/stitching-light