Aziza Kadyri – Sender Unknown

Responding to V&A’s historic suzani collection, Aziza Kadyri explores the intersection of AI, art, and craft. The art of suzani, hand-embroidered textiles made for the bride’s dowry, is one of Uzbekistan’s most significant textile traditions. The suzani tradition borrows from other cultural elements around it, but when an AI model borrows from suzani images, it strips away the many contexts of the embroideries, such as women’s labour, migration, and intergenerational knowledge. Sender Unknown asks whether this technology can be turned back on itself, and used by communities as a tool for translation, rather than a means of forgetting.