I See Myself in You
An Installation by Evoca Foundation in Collaboration with Noor Al Tamimi
"I see myself in you—a reflection of our shared resilience and the profound bonds of womanhood. We are continuously balancing who we are, what we want, and how we behave in relation to complex societal expectations. This experience connects us, creating a common thread among us that we don’t always see or appreciate. How can we acknowledge and honour this solidarity? How can we support one another with greater empathy and kindness? And why is this a worthwhile endeavor?
“Perhaps seeing ourselves, and each other, through this reflective prism can illuminate our path towards dismantling patriarchy—surfacing once again, equally reinvigorated and relentless."
About the Installation
Evoca Foundation presents I See Myself in You, an immersive textile-based installation commissioned for International Women’s Day 2025. This piece centres on a hand-tufted, ornamented mirror, conceptualised by Evoca Foundation and realised in collaboration with contemporary artist Noor Al Tamimi.
The installation draws upon the longstanding tradition of textile arts as a medium through which women across cultures have shared stories, histories and identities. The mirror is installed at Battersea Arts Centre in London and is available to view until Sunday 16th March.
Through this work, Evoca Foundation seeks to honour the lineage of textile arts while reimagining it for a contemporary audience. The tufted mirror becomes both an object and a metaphor: a reflective surface that invites viewers to consider their identities within the collective experience of womanhood, and a richly textured frame that speaks to the layered narratives women carry and share.
Fabric, as a medium, holds a distinct position in the canon of art and craft. Historically dismissed as "domestic" or "decorative," it has also been a radical space for storytelling, subversion and preservation of cultural knowledge. By choosing tufting as her technique, Noor Al Tamimi embraces this history, transforming wool and yarn into sculptural landscapes that bridge the softness of the medium with the strength of the ideas it conveys. The mirror itself—ornamented, reflective and central—serves as a symbol of multiplicity and shared experience.
Textiles: A Language of Resistance and Memory
Textile art is a language spoken across centuries and continents, woven into the lives of women who used their craft to tell their stories. In choosing fabric as a medium, we honour the hands that have stitched, knotted, tufted and woven their narratives into being. This installation invites viewers to reflect on this heritage and consider how the act of creating—both individually and collectively—binds us across time and space.
Throughout history, when women’s voices were silenced, their hands continued to speak. Textiles have served as an archive, a protest, and a declaration of existence.
Quilts created by enslaved women contained coded messages guiding others toward freedom.
Suffragettes stitched banners demanding a place in democracy.
The arpilleras of Chile became tools of resistance, woven by women who refused to let their stories disappear.
Fabric has never been just material—it has been a vessel for memory, survival and transformation. Women have always used their hands to weave history, embedding resilience into every stitch. These acts of creation were often dismissed as craft, relegated to the realm of the domestic. But make no mistake: textiles have been, and continue to be, a force of social change.
About the Artist
Noor Al Tamimi’s work redefines the boundaries of textile art, blending traditional craft with contemporary aesthetics. Inspired by organic forms and cultural narratives, her tufted creations transform everyday materials into emotionally resonant works of art. Noor’s journey as an artist began in 2021 with her first piece, Bas Ya Bahar, a deeply personal reflection on Qatar’s maritime history. Since then, her practice has expanded into commissioned works across India, Korea and the United States, merging storytelling with textile art.
Each piece takes between one-two months from concept to completion, meticulously crafted by Noor and her team of skilled artisans: Sookyung Cho, Sangmin Lee, Michael Ives, Liam Cleland, Arjun Mehta, Rohan Patel, Neha Sharma, Jihoon Park, Eunji Kim.
An Invitation to Reflect and Connect
This year, we ask: How do we honour these threads that bind us? How can we support one another with greater empathy and recognition? And how do we carry forward the stories woven into our own lives? We invite you to join us in this reflection, to stand before this mirror, and to see not just yourself—but the collective force of women’s stories stitched together, past and present. We are not separate—we are woven together.
Evoca Foundation is proud to situate this installation within the rich cultural programming of Battersea Arts Centre for International Women’s Day, inviting audiences to engage with a work that bridges the historical and the contemporary, the individual and the collective, and the personal and the universal. This collaboration seeks to inspire reflection, dialogue, and celebration of the shared strength and struggle of women.
