Missing I

Šejla Kamerić’s artistic practice, which focuses on the politics of memory, languages of oppression and forms of resistance, explores the ideas of home, borders and national belonging. The artist’s works often involve personal experiences and tragic memories of the Bosnian War (1992–1995) to emphasise that the delicate and the sublime are not pushed aside during catastrophe or hardship, thus revealing a complex, psychogeographical terrain and the tenacity of the human spirit.

Kamerić’s explorations of symbols and expressions related to mourning, as well as the trauma of being a witness, make use of various mediums, including video, film, installation, photography, posters and books. For a series of works she describes as ‘needleworks’, Kamerić also employs knitting and embroidery. In her series titled "Missing", the artist addresses the profound sense of loss and the void left in its wake by stretching white muslin, traditionally worn by Bosnian women in mourning, across wooden frames used for embroidery, leaving the cloth unadorned. Irregular golden threads hanging from the frames, with needles at their ends, evoke the image of teardrops. Embroidery, a basic form of distraction and a pastime, is thus transformed into a means of confronting and overcoming the pain of loss. However, the sheer blankness of the fabric still suggests the inability to start anew and to carry on in the face of sorrow.