THE FOUNDERS PILLARS & THE POWER LOOM
The Fovnder’s Pillars & The Power Loom is an Augmented Reality (AR) memorial and smart fabric visualisation honouring the six enslaved individuals once owned by MIT(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) founder William Barton Rogers. Drawing from six African regions, each represented by a distinct textile and its associated myth/story, the project weaves decolonial tropes and tales of freedom-making practices into AI-generated magical imaginings that fuse classical colonial architecture with African futuristic storytelling.
The project conjures a space of collective wisdom shaped by indigenous epistemologies and African knowledge systems spanning a selection of ancient and contemporary textiles from Mozambique (Capulana), Angola (Raffia), Nigeria (Indigo), Ivory Coast (Baoule), Sierra Leone(Gara) and Senegal(Bogolanfini). Each of the selected fabric was linked to a corresponding myth, story, or anecdote, then translated into smart fabric visualisations for future storytelling, creating living memorials to the communities they represent. This selection highlights the interconnectedness(es) of communities, cultures and shared techniques that exist despite the disruptions of the slave trade.
Curatorial Statement:
Studying the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, it is not immediately apparent how craft and textiles tell us a story of pre-colonial African societies. The Berlin Conference of 1884 imposed pseudo-nationalist ideologies and left lasting legacies, painting a picture of divided civilizations without interconnected cultural and religious influences.
A survey of some of these societies from a decolonial perspective reveals new insights into themes that speak to patterns of migration, religious influences from Asia, gendered labour in relation to century-old indigenous craft, textile dyeing techniques, and clothing aesthetics.
The following selection of textile histories, split into families: Etu (Indigo), Raffia, Loom, Flow, Text, Mineral, seeks to not only make visible the six slaves ‘owned’ by William Barton Rodgers but also the interconnectedness(es) of communities, cultures, artisans and shared techniques that exist despite the disruptions of the slave trade.
Artists: Meghna Singh, Lesiba Mabitsela, Simon Wood