Fabric becomes skin,
and batting becomes flesh.
I'm a (they/them) fiber artist and witch based in Tennessee. My work involves handstitching as sites for ritual, devotion, and the embracing of taboos regarding gender expression, spirituality, and sexuality.
My practice engages with tarot reading, spellwork, and astrology as conceptual tools, embodied processes, and alternative ways of knowing. While earning my BFA in Sculpture at Mississippi State University, I understood how art was inherently magical. Through the creation of correspondances with their own individual meanings, every art piece becomes a spell and offering.
Kareem Siddiqui
I was initially drawn to fiber art because of its meditative rhythm and methodical practice. However, it can not be avoided that fiber art has a cultural weight because of its associations with women, queer communities, and unspoken storytelling. This tone led me to embrace subtle tactile learning and esoteric wisdom from ancestors of art, craft, and trade.
Throughout fiber art history, thread embodied a metaphor associated with fate and storytelling. For many, the queer body defies fate, or so it seems. Everyone must unravel the mold of normalcy for the sake of our own self expression. Queerness embraces the constant transitions that life has to offer.
I seek to iterate on traditions of the past to create a new patchwork for my future. Growing up as a Muslim Indian-American in the Bible Belt, I rediscovered fiber art practices found within Southwest Asian cultures. In my practice, mirrors are sewn onto fabric, becoming eyes: portals of self reflection and wards of protection.
