Patch by Kyriaki - Patches - Patchwork Object

Creator

Kyriaki

Story

This patchwork object is a creative response to a silk cocoon embroidery of her own design that my grandmother, Eleni Hadjiloizou (Ελένη Χατζηλοΐζου) created together with her husband-to-be, Andreas Lazarou (Aντρέας Λαζάρου). It was made in the 1940s in the village of Troulli (Larnaca) in Cyprus. It tells an unconventional story of co-creation and young love as this costly textile craft tradition was typically undertaken solely by women; it required intergenerational specialised knowledge and skills in cocoon embroidery, twisting and needlework as the cocoons were collected and subjected to a special treatment to extract the silk fibres. They were then woven and embroidered onto fine black fabric base into 3D floral and geometrical patterns that symbolise blossoming and regeneration. The breeding of silkworms, and the production and trading of silk, was one of the main Cyprus occupations since the Byzantine empire. This folk art is an important part of Cyprus’s cultural heritage and under threat because it is no longer taught to younger generations; it is shaped by the island’s colonial history as manifested in emblematic designs such as the lion (connected to Richard the Lionheart and the Lusignan dynasty), or the less-common double-headed eagle (Byzantine emblem).

My grandmother’s design was of Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople, with its iconic grand dome, intricate mosaics and tall columns; it is unusual and unique. While her choice of this architectural and cultural icon of Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox civilisation testifies to her Christian faith, her inspiration from the legend of how the church model was designed by bees gives insight into her own creative agency as she was also building a home based on teamwork. This craft was undertaken while a Cyprus insurgency was brewing against British colonial rule that used textile regulation as a form of empowerment. Hagia Sophia was built in the sixth century under the direction of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, who is also known for obtaining silkworms from China, which led to the establishment of an indigenous silk industry that held the monopoly in Europe; its adoption as a design serves as a powerful symbol of resistant identity, heritage, pride and tradition. The very making of this silk cocoon embroidery was in defiance of the British colonial silkworm industry protection laws that criminalised domestic sericulture; it is an early example of anti-colonial struggle and resistance through art that, soon after this, saw women, including my grandmother, consciously using fabrics as a means of protest, launching a boycott of imported British goods and encouraging the use of traditional garments during the Cyprus war of independence against the British empire.

Reinscribing the loss of textile traditions within colonial history can form part of contemporary discussion of how to revive Cypriot cultural practices through sustainable fashion and art. My grandparents used their silk cocoon embroidery as a bespoke photograph frame to honour and remember loved ones who emigrated overseas. Similarly, I am using this patchwork object to celebrate their love and creativity (it contains the only surviving photo of A & E as a young married couple) and commemorate the migrant, multicultural and diasporic heritage they left behind (it contains a digital print by her great grandson, Chris Edward Plunkett, of her as an elderly woman); I consider it to be an intergenerational co-creation between all of us.

Rights Holder

Kyriaki

Rights