Sender Unknown

The art of suzani – intricately hand-embroidered textiles traditionally made for a bride’s dowry – is one of Uzbekistan’s most significant cultural traditions. While suzani itself has long evolved through shared cultural exchange, AI models introduce a different kind of borrowing – one that can strip away layers of context, disconnecting images of the embroideries from the lived experiences that produced them: women’s labour, migration, and intergenerational knowledge. By absorbing images into datasets, authorship disappears, contexts collapse and meaning becomes simply pattern. Moving between handcrafted and digital processes, Sender Unknown addresses this uncertainty and asks whether technologies that risk erasing histories can instead be reimagined as tools for preservation and reinterpretation. Sender Unknown combines suzani (embroidery) techniques with digital textile printing, evoking a deconstructed sense of information transmission. Using a bespoke AI model, the artists developed a new language of suzani symbols. Female artisans in Nurota, Uzbekistan, hand-embroidered these contemporary motifs. Artistic collaborators include: Yulduz Mukhiddinova and team (suzani embroidery); Kacper Reicher (digital development); Fabrication Facility (3D structures). The display is part of the V&A’s Jameel Programme, celebrating 20 years of The Jameel Gallery with Community Jameel. With further support from the Sarikhani Family. With thanks to Canclini Tessile. Curated by Carrie Chan and Fuchsia Hart. Produced by Faunsia Tucker. Image credit: Sender Unknown (Digital render, 2026), Aziza Kadyri