Each year we invite a digital artist to contribute a body of work that informs the visual identity of the award, and is showcased throughout our website, social media, and other promotional materials. Learn more about the 2021 Featured Artist below.
Khadija Aziz, Slippery Spaces (2018-2021)
Slippery Spaces investigates the materiality of textiles through an ongoing exchange between analogue and digital techniques. Khadija Aziz first hand-embroiders, beads, and paints fabrics, and then drags them across a flatbed scanner to be digitally captured. This craft-minded approach exploits the capacities of the scanner to introduce pixelated colours and shapes into the rendering of the woven fabric, which is then further edited using digital software. Khadija prints the resulting images back onto fabric, adding further embellishments with thread and beads before beginning the scanning process once again. This cycle of intentional play results in a series of digitally generated surface patterns composed of digital pixels, physical material, and movement.
Khadija Aziz is an interdisciplinary textile artist and educator who investigates image-making in the digital sphere using a flatbed scanner, cloth, and thread. Her process-based practice bridges the gap between textile-making techniques and digital technologies, generating unique surface outcomes and images through chance, spontaneity, and experimentation. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Fibres & Material Practices at Concordia University, Montreal. Khadija is the recipient of the 2020 Shanks Memorial Award in Textiles from Craft Ontario and the 2020 Creative Promise Award from the Surface Design Association.