Evîna Me Bê Sînore

Nuveen Barwari

~ Our L o v e is W i t h o u t Borders ~

Nuveen Barwari uses a pair of scissors and a sewing machine to stitch together old Kurdish dresses, found materials, and various textiles to reflect and explore conditions of assimilation, colonial amnesia, and the fragmented state of diasporic living. There is a sense of history and loss in the way elements of the body are presented in Barwari’s tapestries. The use and reuse of textiles evokes how they might have looked on a person, how they would have danced or even moved in them.

The flower is a common motif in Kurdish songs and literature. It is also a recurring motif in this body of work. Someone who does not have the keys to unlock this generational knowledge would think that these songs and poems are only about love, romance, and landscapes. However, like the songs and poems, the patterns, and symbols that Barwari abstracts from textiles often shift from being decorative to interrogating cultural symbols, redrawing borders, remapping, and reconnecting to ancestral land.

September 10th-26th 2021