Hopscotch Women’s Centre with Aya Haidar

Aya Haidar (b. 1985, lives and works in London) is a multimedia artist; her work focuses on the use of found and recycled objects exploring loss, migration, memory, labour, domesticity and womanhood. Her hand-embroidered interventions onto culturally and historically specific objects, unfold silenced and authentic narratives around socially and politically engaged issues. Aya Haidar graduated with a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Art, during which she completed an exchange program at SAIC (Chicago). She then went on to graduate with an MSc in NGOs and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Haidar’s work has been included in exhibitions at institutions such as Cubitt (London), Museum of Contemporary Art, (Slovenia), New Art Exchange (Nottingham), Jeddah Arts Week 21,39 (KSA), as well as in Hans Ulrich Obrist and Hoor Al Qasimi’s Do It (2016), INIVA’s A Place for Conversation (London), Mosaic Rooms (London), Art Berlin contemporary (Berlin), Casa Arabe, (Madrid), Art Dubai (UAE), Abu Dhabi Art (UAE), V&A’s Record, Resist, Reframe (London), Tate’s Illuminating Cultures program (London). Her work is internationally collected by private collections and institutions, most recently by the Guggenheim Museum.

Throughout autumn 2022 artist Aya Haidar has been collaborating with women from Hopscotch Women’s Centre to explore stories of home, migration and family.

Meeting weekly for collective stitching, sewing and conversations the women have been working together to embroider their personal stories, histories and journeys onto antimacassars; unpacking experiences of navigating societal, racial and gender inequity through this process.

Antimacassars are small pieces of fabric cloth placed over the arms or heads of chairs, typically to prevent damage of the fabric underneath, acting as a form of protection and repair. 

Antimacassars gained their name from Macassar oil, a hair oil commonly used by men in the early 19th century, reputed to have been manufactured from ingredients purchased in the port of Makassar in South East Asia. During Victorian and Edwardian periods, households began to cover the arms and backs of chairs with washable cloths decorated with elaborate patterns to prevent permanent damage to fabric from Macassar oil, coining use of the term anti-macassar. 

Through the symbolic use of antimacassars and by using embroidery as a tool for storytelling, we created a space to explore notions of personal damage and emotional repair together. 

We are now making public the space used during these sessions, inviting you to take a seat and experience the antimacassars mapping these women’s stories.