Textile history in South Asia uncovers much more than just the examination of unique beautiful crafts, cloths and identities. It is as bound up with the political, social and cultural geographies that relate to workers revolts, active resistance and anti colonial movements. It is also a history that has been affected by borders, ruling states and international relations of labour and production, spanning centuries, and is still felt in today's world. Artist Raisa Kabir, will run a short historical tour of some of these moments that are tied within European colonial history of empire and provide an anti colonial commentary that connects the implications of labour and exploitation that has been embedded in the global history of south Asian textile production. From natural fibers, materials, and dyes, to regional craft techniques and their historic connections to global trade and their markets.

Please bring a treasured textile to the workshop with you, to bring to the discussion.

The workshop will be led by visiting interdisciplinary Bangladeshi artist, Raisa Kabir, who utilises woven text/textiles, sound, video and performance to translate and visualise concepts concerning the politics of cloth, labour and geography. She addresses cultural anxieties surrounding nationhood and borders; examining the encoded violence in histories of labour in globalised neo-colonial textile production. Her (un)weaving performances comment on power, production and the body as a living archive of collective trauma. She has exhibited work at The Whitworth, The Tetley, Raven Row, Textile Arts Center NYC, and The Center of Craft Creativity and Design NC.