Paper, Scissors, Thread: Lives in Layers

Paper. Scissors. Thread. The title is also a method — but what does it mean to draw with a needle, or cut a portrait from a single sheet? At jaggedart gallery in Marylebone (until 5 June 2026), Batool Showghi and Charlotte Hodes answer that question from opposite ends of the workbench, and in doing so, find themselves making kindred work.

Batool Showghi, The Silent Speakers, 2026. Textile, stitching and acrylic paint on canvas.

Showghi's tools are the sewing machine and its needle, repurposed from decoration into mark-making, as a draughtsman wields a pencil: with intention. Her work is rooted in the experience of women navigating cultural and religious boundaries, and in the turbulence of immigration, family disintegration and displacement. These are not abstract concerns; they are autobiographical. Offcuts of Iranian scarves and Japanese kimonos are layered and stitched with linear black thread, conjuring female figures from what might otherwise be discarded cloth. Handwritten Farsi poetry surfaces between the seams, a poetic reflection on memory, on a family scattered, on a city lost to war...

(...)

Want to read more of this article?
We are proud to be a subscriber-funded publication with members in 185 countries. We know our readership is passionate about textiles, so we invite you to help us preserve and promote the stories, memories, and histories that fabric holds. Your support allows us to publish our magazine, and also ‘what's on’ information, and subscription interviews, reviews, and long-read articles in our online blog. 

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? CLICK HERE TO ACCESS CONTENT

Or, to continue reading….


Magazine subscribers automatically get free access to all our online content. We send the access code by email with the publication of each issue. You will also find it on the envelope containing your magazine. Please note the access code changes every issue.

...

Image Credits:

Lead: Batool Showghi, The Untold Stories No 3, 2023 (detail). Textile, stitching and acrylic paint on canvas.

All further images courtesy of the artists and jaggedart gallery, and as credited in photo captions.