Refugee Project — Panel 3: Enduring

This panel continues my exploration of inherited memory shaped by displacement in the aftermath of World War II. Rooted in my family’s history, it forms part of a larger body of textile art about memory and repair, where fragments of the past are altered and reassembled.

Created using natural dyes, eco-printing, stitching, and photo transfer.

In Enduring, layers of fragmented documents move across a ground of muted taupe and brown. Official papers—some handwritten, others printed and signed—are transferred onto semi-transparent fabrics in tones of blue, grey, white, and violet. Their edges are burned, then reassembled and overstitched using boro-inspired techniques in brighter threads of red, green, and purple.

Through this textile art about memory and repair, damage becomes part of the structure rather than something to conceal

Butterflies appear intermittently across the surface, while meandering running stitches connect the scattered elements, tracing paths between rupture and repair. The documents are burned, fragmented, and stitched back together. What remains is not untouched, but held through alteration—preserved through acts of repair and persistence.

Developed during my residency in Kerala, India, February 2026.

https://maijazemitis.com/refugee-project-panel-2-identifying/

https://maijazemitis.com/refugee-project-panel-1-carrying/

Thank you for following the journey of the Refugee Project. Your interest and encouragement mean a great deal as this series continues to evolve.