This new exhibition focuses on the persisting nature of textiles and ornaments in Central Asian history and contemporary art
There’s a Central Asian tradition pre-dating the spread of Islam to the region which entails filling a triangular fabric pouch with soil from a child’s birthplace, and leaving it with the child for protection until they become an adult. The custom was born when Tengriism, a polytheistic Turkic mythological belief system characterised by an adherence to shamanism and animism, was prevalent.
“After the Islamic Khanate established rule in the region in the 10th century, the tradition became to enclose protective Quranic verses in the pouch instead. It’s called a tumar,” says 26-year-old Kazakh artist Daria Nurtaza, who goes by Kokonja. At the Centre for Heritage and Textile Arts (Chat) at The Mills, Hong Kong, Nurtaza wore a leather variation of the traditional amulet that she has had since childhood. She was in the city in March to showcase an artwork in Clouds, Power, Ornament—Roving Central Asia, the first exhibition on Central Asian textile art in the Greater China region, running until May 21.
Nurtaza and her friend and collaborator, 22-year-old artist Medina Bazargali, created the installation Will There be Freedom Then? (Erkindik Bola ma Eken sol Kezde?) (2023) for the show. Essentially a yurt created from felt, the work sits in the centre of the exhibition, connecting the themes it seeks to explore. The exhibition is a collection of installations, videos, sculptures, robes and embroidered works by artists from across Central Asia, using textiles and craft as points of departure to explore the multilayered history and complex cultural identities of the region.
Clouds, Power, Ornament is co-curated by artist collective Slavs and Tatars—who write, create and curate work within Eurasia, which they define as all places east of the former Berlin Wall and west of the Great Wall of China—as well as Beijing-based curator You Mi, Almaty- based independent curator and researcher Alexandra Tsay, and Wang Weiwei, curator of exhibitions and collections at Chat.
Wang has long been interested in the region, particularly the cultural shifts experienced throughout the Soviet era and after the dissolution of the USSR. However, when she began organising the show, she found herself in unfamiliar territory, so she enlisted Slavs and Tatars, Mi and Tsay’s assistance. “I realised Central Asia is kind of a forgotten land for the modern world,” says Wang. “Later, I found out they have such a rich textile tradition with distinct materials and techniques, and I wanted to showcase this because we’ve [Chat] never done an exhibition with Central Asian artists.”