What type of textile is this?
A woven textile.
Was it produced for a specific use?
It is an art piece.
What material(s) is it comprised of?
Cotton and silk
What are its dimensions?
45.7 × 50.8 cm
What year (or date range) was it made?
2013
Where was it made (geographical location)?
London
Was the textile handmade or mass-produced?
Handmade on a dobby loom.
Can the textile be attributed to a specific designer, craftsperson or artist or a company that produced the item?
Raisa Kabir
How did you come to own this particular textile?
I made it.
How would you describe the status of this textile in your lived environment (i.e. do you wear it, store it, display it, use it, etc.)?
It’s very precious, so I keep it stored.
Do you recall what drew you to this textile initially?
I made it in response to describing the lived realities and multiple voices of being queer, the hidden coded voices and histories of South Asian women always being seen as heterosexual, the idea of Indian patterned fabrics being situated as innocuous or reflecting traditional ideas of South Asian gender in some way. But on a second look, the language of queerness is hidden in the cloth, and those that can read the Bangali script can read what is coded and written in the textile. It contains text from a poem I wrote.
What further information (if any) would you feel important to add about this textile, either in relation to your interview or more generally?
It was made to be exhibited with a sound piece in which I read the poem out in Bangla. Its title is পর্দা খোলা আমাদের নীরব ভাষা দেখা or Lift the veil and see our silent language.
