Jemina Asp Zayed
My practice ranges from weaving to print, video and installation. I take inspiration from my own experience of being connected to two cultures – Sweden and Tunisia. My work often takes its starting point in the material itself, a physical material as symbol or bearer of histories, ideas and conceptions. Through these, I investigate how we interpret and understand each other, places and events. I am drawn to questions surrounding work, representation and fate that reflect the complexity in class, women’s roles and post-colonialism.
When my parents got married, they received a rug as a wedding present from my father’s aunt. This woven fabric was present the entire time I was growing up. In connection with the loss of my family home, with its objects and history, I’ve begun collecting artefacts as a way to understand my family history and belonging. I want to find fragments of something that was fully or partially hidden. A legacy that I have.
With the Amazigh (Berber) rug as my starting point, I examine my own history and identity through the Textiles Programme at Konstfack and a country with Swedish trade relations. What happens in the imaginary? What happens with history where language is absent?
