Roda Medhat, a Toronto-based Kurdish artist, creates large-scale sculptures and textile works that translate traditional West Asian textiles into multiple media. Digital fabrication and 3D scanning intersect with memory and material, raising questions about how stories are carried and what changes when they are rendered in synthetic languages. In the solo exhibition From the Loom at Abbozzo Gallery, glowing light-based pieces appear encased in glass or acrylic, echoing patterned Kurdish rugs. Images and symbols from Kurdish children’s books, including young boys riding horses and interacting with nature, are woven into textiles using an electronic Jacquard machine. The work functions as a distillation of broader research, including contemporary subversion of archival materials. The anchoring sculpture The Sheep and the Chevrolet reimagines a problematic 1947 ethnographic work by pairing a monumental 3D-printed sheep with a small Chevrolet vehicle.
"Roda Medhat pushes the boundaries of fabric into the realm of sculpture, exploring the ways in which traditional West Asian textiles can be translated into various media. As digital fabrication and 3D scanning cross paths with memory and material, Medhat's practice asks “how we carry our stories, and what happens when those stories are translated into new, synthetic languages?”"
"The artist's new solo exhibition, titled From the Loom, fills Toronto's Abbozzo Gallery with large-scale sculptures in conversation with a new series of textile works. Known in part for his neon installations, the artist also presents several glowing light-based works encased within glass or acrylic, redolent of patterned Kurdish rugs."
"Several of Medhat's images and symbols-most prominently young boys riding horses and interacting with nature-are sourced from Kurdish children's books. These icons are woven directly into the surface of each textile by way of an electronic Jacquard machine, further accentuating the contrast between preserved cultural objects and contemporary reconstruction."
"“The Sheep and the Chevrolet,” an anchoring work within the exhibition, reimagines François Balsan's problematic 1947 ethnographic work of the same title. Pitting bucolic Kurdish life with Western modernism, Balsan's off-key travelogue presented a stereotypical, highly subjective view of Kurdish culture. Medhat's bold sculpture invokes 3D printing to construct a monumental sheep composedly sitting atop a small Chevrolet vehicle, offering a playful point of reconceptualization."
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