Mәrjәm

Hand-embroidery on canvas, series

2022

​

The series of hand-embroidered canvases explores the history of Russification in Soviet Kazakhstan as part of the cultural assimilation policies. For several centuries, the Arabic script was used for the Kazakh language; it was replaced by the Latin Yanalif in 1929, only to be switched shortly thereafter to Cyrillic.

​

Mәrjәm is the name of my grandmother, who was born in 1911. At school, she learned the Arabic script, but by the time she turned eighteen, it had been replaced by the Latin alphabet. When Marjam had her first child, the alphabet was changed once more - to Kazakh Cyrillic. She did not learn it until her old age. It was only in her sixties that she taught herself the Cyrillic letters. Despite her eyesight weakening from years of needlework, she spent her evenings reading, lamenting the time she had lost. 

​

In my work, I hand-embroider her name and various Kazakh words and letters in three alphabets: Arabic, Latin, and Cyrillic. By using the thread of the same colour as the canvas, I seek to make visible the "invisibling" effects of the Soviet cultural policy. This act of hand labor is my attempt to restore what cannot be restored and to acknowledge the long history of gendered labor and the learned ability of women to remain silent.

​

The work was exhibited at Clouds, Power, and Ornament at MillCHAT, Centre for Heritage, Art and Textile, Hong Kong.

​

Further

​

Read Asel Kadyrkhanova's essay Stitch, Unstitch which was written for the collective volume Suture: Reimagining Ornament, CHAT, 2023: Hong Kong republished at RUYO Journal

Read poet Tim Tim Cheng's poetic response to Asel Kadyrkhanova