Smocking a Smock, 2021
Khadija Aziz
Presented in the multisite exhibition Infinite Scroll as part of Vector Festival 2021
Khadija Aziz investigates image-making with textiles using manipulation, experimentation, and the ever-shifting nature of cloth. Her process-based practice bridges the gaps between textile-making techniques and digital technologies to generate unexpected outcomes through translation, chance, and distortion. She is currently pursuing an MFA at Concordia University’s Fibre & Material Practices program. In recognition of her creative practice, Khadija has most recently received the Shanks Memorial Award in Textiles from Craft Ontario and the Creative Promise Award from Surface Design Association in 2020.
Smocking a Smock is a stop-motion animation that captures the visual process of a textile stitching technique called “smocking”, which builds dimension that allows cloth to stretch without elastics. To create this animation, Khadija created a simple Canadian arrow smocking pattern on white cotton. The smocked fabric was scanned while being dragged across a flatbed scanner, distorting its perfectly aligned arrows. The glitched image was enlarged and digitally printed onto cotton sateen, re-flattening the dimensional fabric. In this GIF, the artist uses needle and thread to re-stitch the Canadian arrow smocking pattern on the digitally printed fabric. Khadija’s digitization and repetition of this pattern resembles the infinite scrolling of social media and the infinite looping of a GIF.
About the exhibition
This work is presented as part of the multisite exhibition Infinite Scroll, which showcases GIF artworks that use abstraction and repetition to simulate the hypnotic effects of social media scrolling. GIFs by Khadija Aziz, Justine Durand, Peter Rahul, and Shaheer Zazai are presented, respectively, by Factory Media Centre (Hamilton), InterAccess (Toronto), Digital Arts Resource Centre (Ottawa), and Trinity Square Video’s Virtual Vitrine (online). Khadija Aziz’ Smocking a Smock will be available to view online 27/4 as well as at Factory Media Centre’s street-level window from 11pm to 2am each evening.
About Vector Festival
Vector Festival is a participatory and community-oriented initiative organized by InterAccess that is dedicated to showcasing digital games and creative media practices. Presenting works across a dynamic range of exhibitions, screenings, performances, lectures, and workshops, Vector acts as a critical bridge between emergent digital platforms and new media art practice.
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