Declaration, 2013

Declaration, 2013, Embroidery on Egyptian Cotton, 23 x 23 cm.

Taking every one of the 18 countries across the MENA region’s declaration of independence, I have decoded and recoded them into their own individual and respective digital QR code, which I have in turn embroidered onto panels of Egyptian cotton.

Declarations of independence are proclamations that a given state and its nation are officially sovereign and ‘free’. The official dates are interesting when thinking about changes pre and post that mark, and whether any of them are indeed significant. What does it mean to truly be independent? Are any of these nations any more independent now than they were before such declarations? The fact that they were ‘granted’ independence and did not take it themselves reflects masked power dynamics that have never truly dissolved.

The decoding and recoding of language is of particular interest. In today’s world, digital media has shaped not only our current state by democratising and empowering from the bottom up, but it has also rewritten our language as means of communication.

Each embroidered panel represents a declaration of independence respective to each country, translated into its own individual QR code. As each panel is hand embroidered, the lines, colour and textures are not as sharp and uniform as if it were digital, consequently making it impossible to successfully scan and read. Ironically, when brought back to the original means of communication, through the hand stitch, something gets lost in translation and new age media becomes redundant.

By extension, the declarations become redundant, not only on a physical level, but also on a conceptual one where their significance remains void in today’s world.