A rediscovered suzani goes on show at the V&A

An Instagram post by Tristram Hunt, the Director of the V&A, told me this suzani was going on display in the Jameel Gallery at the museum. I recognised it immediately from the photograph, as it is part of a group of excellent suzanis that we saw at the old Clothworkers’ Centre at Blythe House well over a decade ago.

Suzani installation at the V&A. Courtesy Tristram Hunt

It had been rediscovered by Moya Carey and Rosemary Crill, along with another dozen and a half examples, miscatalogued and unknown, in the V&A stores (if my memory serves me correctly, they were catalogued as Indian embroideries).

Karshi suzani, Uzbekistan, before 1896. Silk embroidery on cotton, 1.70 x 2.61m (5' 7" x 8' 7"). Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 82-1896, purchased from Juda Moussaiovv, 1896 — Suzani with flowers, human figures, animals and objects, probably Uzbekistan, before 1896. Silk embroidery on cotton, 1.70 x 2.61m (5' 7" x 8' 7"). Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 82-1896, purchased from Juda Moussaiovv, 1896

According to Hunt’s post, the suzani inspired ‘Sender Unknown’, a new installation by Uzbek artist Aziza Kadyri that now winds through the arches of the Jameel Gallery. Working with women embroiderers in Nurata, Uzbekistan, and in dialogue with a newly developed AI model, Kadyri explores how digital technology can support the transmission of cultural knowledge, and how the language of suzani design can reflect the lives of the people behind the patterns.

It’s very welcome news that this is now on display as this is an excellent suzani. There is another, unpublished, with similar animals, elephants and people throughout. The two are so alike that they must have been made at the same time, perhaps even as part of the same commission. It is interesting that the clothing of the figures is worked in thread that combines two different colours of silk, giving a tweed-like effect. In a couple of areas there also appears to be needlework that reminds me Mochi work, as seen in Indian textiles, rather than the usual suzani stitches.