Mapping Roots is a project I developed during my summer residency at Gasworks, London that investigates the layered impact of migration on history, identity, and cultural preservation within the Hazara diaspora. The work processed through a research engagement with Hazara migrant families, focusing on their informal archival practices including familial records, memories and stories of migration, that shape a geographical cartography of collective remembrance and erasure. Throughout the residency, I explored how migration and border-crossing disrupt archival continuity.

A central component of the project was a cross-border collaboration with Hazara women artisans from my hometown. One of the paintings incorporates embroidery by Khatima Rezae, which was transported to London and integrated into the work. This piece merges photo transfers of personal archives with floral motifs drawn from Hazara embroidery traditions.

One of the featured paintings includes a poetic passage from Mansha wa Inkashaf Zaban-e-Daari by Jalal Ohaadi, referencing the Ghaznavid Empire’s conquest of Khorasan (present-day Afghanistan and Central Asia) from 962 to 1186 AD.

This text is layered over an image from a wedding celebration in Ghazni in the early 2000s, drawn from a rare family archive shared by Hadi Akbari. The juxtaposition of these elements opens a dialogue between personal memory, historical rupture, and the elusive nature of preservation.

<