Spinning Tales: A Digital Thread through Aziza Kadyri's AI Textiles

By Madeline Davies

Cover image:

Detail from Aziza Kadyri, The Drought, 2024, View of artwork in situ, Pushkin House, image taken by author, 2024

Dangling between bannisters and draped over fireplaces, Kadyri's installations create compelling responses to the domestic furnishings of Pushkin House. Imbued with a strong sense of collaboration, Spinning Tales showcases intricately embroidered works. Conversations with AI (2023) and The Drought (2024) were produced with AI to generate or animate designs. In creating The Drought, the textile work was embroidered by artisan Yulduz Mukhiddinova. From Soviet stock fabric to belbogs; traditional men's belts worn in Uzbekistan, Kadyri thoughtfully modifies utilitarian materials, forming intriguing constructions, or de-constructions, reflecting on tradition and hierarchy within textile production and methods of display.

1: Aziza Kadyri, 9 Moons, 2023, View of artwork in situ, Pushkin House, image taken by author, 2024

At the heart of Spinning Tales lies a strong sense of dedication to absence and untold experiences, explored through reimagining forms of traditional storytelling. Upon entering Pushkin House, 9 Moons (2023) was the first work to capture my attention. Suspended within the centre of the stairwell, the installation presents fragmented embroidered works, brilliantly exposing both the front and rear of the textiles. The name, derived from the translated Uzbek meaning of "the Moon Lady" Oyibibi, Kadyri's great-grandmother, also references the moon-like forms at the centre of the textiles. Adopting Suzani embroidery, Kadyri contrasts the remaining original textiles from her great-grandmother's dowry with augmented versions of the celestial forms. Playing with the forms of the fabric, Kadyri adds figurative motifs, such as a figure flying from a kite, imitating the fraying threads that hang to its side. With a backdrop of decorative bannisters, the artist's designs, in this circumstance, are complimented beautifully by the space.

In creating this fragmented composition, Kadyri gives a voice to the unheard, reimagining the missing moons to share women's experiences within her family. As an interdisciplinary artist, Kadyri combines her textile practice with technology and adds a digital layer to enable viewers to read about the colonial, ideological, and patriarchal struggles explored in the installation. Materiality becomes connected by a digital thread to the written word. These rich layers are a poignant reminder of textiles powerful ability as storytelling devices, enhanced by relationships with technology. 

 2, Left: Aziza Kadyri, The Drought, 2024, View of artwork in situ, Pushkin House, image taken by author, 2024

Entering the music room, reimagined traditional textiles are also utilised to reflect on the political and ecological issues of Uzbekistan. The Drought (2024), described by the artist as an altar to the vanished Aral Sea, drapes over the fireplace on the rear wall, showcasing intricately embroidered motifs and symbols. Exploring the ecological impacts of cotton production within Uzbekistan, Kadyri incorporates fish skeletons and nuclear symbols amidst the Suzani-inspired foliage. With variations in natural decay, the notion of loss subtly comes to the fore. Following threads outside of the borders towards unravelling edges, Kadyri also utilises digital collaborations within this piece, turning to AI to produce the design of the altarpiece. As an artwork that reflects on the devastation of landscape ultimately caused by the impacts of material production, a visceral dialogue is set up between Kadyri, Mukhiddinova, and AI. When considering production and perception, responsibility is not only relevant to the issues presented in the textile installation but also to their artistic positions. We are again reminded of the reimagining and deconstruction of hierarchy within canonical textiles throughout the exhibition.

3, Right: Detail from Aziza Kadyri, The Drought, 2024, View of artwork in situ, Pushkin House, image taken by author, 2024

Further enhancing the viewer's relationship with Kadyri's digital practice, the music room also exhibits small-scale prints. Depicting outlines of maps and scans of textiles presented in loom-like frames, we gain deeper insight into creative development through evidence of process. Kadyri's AI collaboration is also found outside the exhibition space. At the building's exterior, three posters of the artist's embroidered work are displayed along an iron fence. Accessed via QR code, the link takes you to an animated short video. If you manage to visit during a quiet period of the day and have brought headphones with you, watching the video on the street provides a stimulating experience to consider the role of modern technology in the gallery and how it compares to the artworks in the flesh. 

Although I am often keen to take time away from the screen when visiting a gallery, Spinning Tales beautifully demonstrates how such intricate materials can be brought to life and instilled with deeper narrative through digital collaboration. Competing against a range of fixed furnishings and furniture that obscure the viewing experience to a degree, the textile works adopt original methods to fill unassuming spaces and provide a variety of perspectives. On show until January 2025, Spinning Tales truly is a display where QR codes are worth any technical difficulties and where passageways offer excellent viewing points.