(Image: Supplied)
A new exhibition exploring the connections between Scotland and South Asia through textile histories and colonial trade is set to open in Glasgow next month.
House of The Stolen Weavers, by interdisciplinary artist and weaver Raisa Kabir, will open at Tramway on November 20 and run until May 16, 2027.
Tiger, Tiger. Silk Throat…, 2023 (Textile) 180 x 90 cm Red silk, cotton warp, gold and metallic yarns, cast iron, stones, blue dyed leather. (Image: Supplied)
The exhibition will bring together textiles, sculpture, video and performance to examine the cultural politics of cloth, migration and colonial history, with a particular focus on Glasgow’s past as a merchant city and trading port.
The installation will feature interconnected textile and sculptural works suspended or anchored throughout the gallery, including pieces inspired by looms, maritime vessels, ships and sails.
After the Empire Falls, 2025. Handwoven wool, silk, cotton, synthetic yarns. 80 x 100 cm. (Image: Supplied)
Among the works are large-scale “loom-house-boat” sculptures combining traditional hand looms, colonial sugar ships that once sailed the River Clyde and traditional Bangladeshi boats. Another piece brings together loom architecture and a stilt house from India’s floodplains.
Hand-woven and digitally woven tapestries will hang throughout the space, drawing on the forms of ship sails and incorporating motifs from South Asian delta landscapes and flood maps.
Neon compound histories, 2024Silk, wool, and synthetic yarns. 168 cm x 74 cm. (Image: Supplied)
Kabir has also incorporated found objects, including coracles, circular woven boats, filled with materials such as cotton, silk, indigo, cochineal, jute and flax. Suspended on ropes, the boats will appear to float through the gallery, referencing archival textiles depicting Indian “Lascar” sailors.
These mariners played a role in Glasgow’s colonial shipping networks, navigating global trade routes and supporting the commercial operations of the British Empire.
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A new film featuring a performance by Kabir, titled House of the Stolen Weaver, will also be shown as part of the exhibition.
Kabir’s practice explores textile archives as records of global politics, migration and colonial memory. Her research has included two years spent examining The Textile Manufactures of India, a collection of fabric sample books published by John Forbes Watson in 1866, investigating how European industrial wealth was built through the appropriation of traditional craft.
Tramway, a Glasgow Life venue funded by Creative Scotland, will host the exhibition free of charge.
It will be open from Wednesday to Sunday, from noon to 5pm, with Saturday opening hours extended to 6pm. The gallery is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.