tapestry

exodus

hijrot

Influx trilogy: Hijrot (exodus)

EMB0206

Hijrot (Exodus) depicts the August 2017 clearance operation in Rakhine State that forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people to flee to Bangladesh in a mass exodus. The tapestry is an embroidered rendition of 13-year-old Rohingya artist Raihan❜s drawing, produced from memory during an art therapy session organized for adolescent boys by the CMC. Hijrot renders the events as they happened: gunshots raining down from a fleet of helicopters; houses on fire; innocent people fleeing; armed forces patrolling the river crossing while boats rock over waves in the foreground. The scenes are worked vertically onto a background as white as bone, giving the tapestry a funereal tone (white is the colour of mourning in South Asian cultures). Rohingya embroidery artist Shamsunnahar completed the bulk of the tapestry, with the guidance of Bangladeshi artist-in-residence Farzana Ahmed Urmi. Two other Rohingya artisans, Mustafa and Sowmida, assisted on small patches. ?It reminds me of what we have survived. And that we survived,❜ says Shamsunnahar simply. By portraying the idyllic Rohingya villages in their moment of destruction, Hijrot unflinchingly examines the Rohingya genocide while also embodying love and yearning for one❜s homeland. This artwork belongs to a collection titled The Influx Trilogy that chronicles the lives of Rohingya refugees and their journey from their homes in Myanmar to their shelters in the Cox❜s Bazar, Bangladesh camps. The three embroidery and patchwork tapestries are: Bormar Jindegi (Myanmar Life), Hijrot (Exodus), and Kutupalong XXL: Aarar Sundor Camp (Our Beautiful Camp).