In the textiles of Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA), embroidery is more than surface decoration. Across this region, artists have used and continue to use centuries-old embellishment techniques to transmit cultural expressions of identity, status, and belief systems.
Embroidered Traditions from Morocco to Afghanistan illuminates how the movements of people and ideas across these expansive terrains have long been conduits of rich cultural exchange. The vast SWANA area is connected by millennia-old trade networks that reach from mountains to seas, by the migration of nomadic peoples, and by the spread and blending of religious traditions and urban styles.
The clothing and accessories from the 18th to the 20th centuries on view highlight visual resonances among these works as well as their geographic and cultural specificity. Through an overview of the curatorial process and close looking at selected works, this talk will explore the remarkable diversity of SWANA traditions and the visual relationships that connect them. By bringing multiple perspectives, intangible heritage, oral histories, and individual narratives into conversation, the exhibition aims to demonstrate how multiplicity itself can preserve and share knowledge.
Janet Marion Purdy is the Barbara Franke Associate Curator in Textiles at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her multisited global research examines Afro-Arab-Asian visual relationships in textiles, metalwork, and architecture as artistic and cultural exchange across Africa, Southwest and Central Asia, and the Indian Ocean world. She received her PhD in the historical arts and architecture of Africa from the Pennsylvania State University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Zanzibar, Tanzania, 2018–19. Purdy is visiting lecturer in African art history at the University of Chicago and research-curatorial consultant for Qatar Museums, including the Qatar Pavilion at Venice Biennale Architettura 2025.
This event is co-sponsored by the Chazen Museum of Art and the Department of Art History, UW-Madison
The event is free and open to the public.