Fari Bradley
Title: Flag Without A Pole - (Sweetheart, I took this offline and sewed it so hard so the f*ckers couldn't delete it)
Year: 2024
Media: Textile
Size: 49 x 72 cm
About the work: Part of my Angry Stitching Series, totems of non-acoustic noise - in this case maxims and things we repeat 'silently' inside in order to memorise them. This work takes a devastating digital acronym the world has learned through media news and citizen journalism from Palestine this year: Wounded Child No Surviving Family (WCNSF), and brings it offline into the domain of handicraft.
Intense machine sewing denotes the urgency of the intent; namely to immortalise and witness the drastic harm inflicted upon children in Palestine. The use of army colours and the reference to a 'Flag Without A Pole' incorporates the sense of shame and dishonour such an acronym denotes, the spinelessness of attacking children with arms and munitions. The work is a note in textile to the orphaned and the fallen, addressing them directly, the title is a dedication of intent; "(Sweetheart, I took this offline and sewed it so hard so the f*ckers couldn't delete it)".
Bio: Fari Bradley (b. Iran, based London) is an artist and composer working with both audible and inaudible sound. Bradley’s work are about listening, language and environment.
Bradley's practice spans installation, sculpture, performance and radiophonics, using found objects, textiles, photography or electronics to question history, public space and society. Past commissions include: Edinburgh Festival, V&A Museum, South London Gallery. Group shows include Raven Row, Le Son 7 in Paris and Buenos Aires, Maraya Art Centre, UAE and Lahore Biennial Foundation, Pakistan. Solo shows include Tashkeel, Dubai and ‘wednesday’, London.
Bradley is pursuing a PhD doctorate in Sound Art at UAL's Centre for Research into Sound Arts Practice (CRiSAP).
Title: A Maxim for Today
Year: 2016
Media: Textile
Size: 46 x 45 cm
About the work: Tightly organised thread makes a totem out of a maxim. The 'royal' gold on purple speaks of ancient civilisations that, in their finery, favoured the same colours, while the bold lettering in English is the font of modern signage. One lonely call for unity, determinedly memorialised by a lengthy process of hand. This work was made as a banner, as single piece and is showing for the first time.
Title: English Lesson - "Non!"
Year: 2016
Media: Textile
Size: 45 x 53 cm
About the work: Courage ignites courage. How do citizen movements across nations inspire others overseas, even while the issues they are provoked by are very local? The French "Gilets Jaune" movement could and should act as measuring stick for any populace faced with state totalitariansim. This is because even in the most developed countries in the world, beneath their iconic monuments to power and industry, occasionally bare rebellion is the only way. This textile piece, stitched in the artist's own handwriting, acts a commemoration of direct and organised community action and the power and guts of the French workers.