Kareem Siddiqui, A person with shoulder-length wavy black hair, wearing a white button-up shirt, red tinted sunglasses, a nose piercing, and black suspenders, standing outdoors with a house and clear blue sky in the background.
A soft fabric sculpture resembling a cake made of viscera, with pink and red meat spilling onto a decorative plate. Vore, DMHIS, Puppet,

Fabric becomes skin,

and batting becomes flesh.

Kareem Siddiqui

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 discovered how art was created through a system of correspondance through materials each with their own individual meanings. By exploring the art process through an occult lens, each art piece becomes a spell and offering.

A colorful spread of tarot cards with vibrant, whimsical illustrations lying on a patterned fabric surface.

My work is informed by the intimate body through erotic themes found in kink and fetish. By deconstructing and splaying the body, I extract eroticism from the human form.

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 the subtle tactile learning and esoteric wisdom from ancestors of art, craft, and trade.

Throughout textile 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. Though we will never know what has fated us for our paths, queerness embraces the constant transitions that life has in store.

Like many contemporary witchcraft practices, 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 felt like an outsider regardless of what community I was entering. When I was young, I didn't have a grasp of my own culture. Through my adulthood, I rediscovered fiber art practices found with Southwest Asian cultures. In my practice, mirrors are sewn onto fabric, becoming eyes: portals of self reflection and wards of protection.

Mixed media wall hanging art piece featuring a dog face, a woman breasts, and a vulva, all made from patchwork fabric with embroidered eyes and other details, hanging from red strings.