Roda Medhat

The centrepiece of this collection is an expansive 41-foot-long carpet, which references traditional West Asian designs while incorporating an imaginative reinterpretation of shapes and colours, a  complex document of reconnection to Kurdish heritage, land and culture.

Opposite is a reconstruction of an archway from a home in Kirkuk’s citadel. The citadel, a site of historical significance, is currently facing preservation challenges. The 3D scanning process revealed imperfections left unrendered. These omissions remain as patches of grey, empty spaces that mirror the fragmented and often incomplete nature of historical preservation and memory. Roda’s paternal grandmother's marital dresser, a dowry chest received on her wedding day in 1955, is rendered in textile. The original was meticulously preserved utilising 3D scanning, producing an exact digital replica of the chest. This was transposed onto a rug and reassembled to mirror the original, a process which preserves the physicality of the dresser but also engages with the historical practice of dowry exchange.

Collectively, these pieces are a documentation of Roda’s return to Kurdistan. Rigid forms are made pliable, just as memory becomes porous and blurry. But while the original object sits miles away subjected to time, weather, and human activity, here a moment in their history is preserved. A dialogue opens between past and present, offering a place to explore the intersections between materiality and cultural heritage.

Exhibition Text by Anna Bullock