02/10/2026
Artwork of the week | Aziza Kadyri
This week, we spotlight Aziza Kadyri’s Self-Exoticisation Archives IV, 2023, from her ongoing AI Suzani Series: Self-exoticisation Archives.
Drawing on the Central Asian tradition of Suzani embroidery, Kadyri trains generative AI on ornamental patterns before projecting the resulting motifs back onto her own image. Moving between portraiture, textile and machine vision, the work explores how heritage and identity can be reframed — or flattened — through algorithmic systems.
By deliberately engaging in an act of “self-exoticisation”, Kadyri questions orientalist framing, algorithmic bias and cultural commodification, reclaiming the visual codes through which her identity has often been mediated.
These concerns continue in Kadyri’s recent site-specific installation Sender Unknown at the V&A (), London, which brings together textile, AI, an interactive responsive element and a historic suzani from the museum’s collection.
The work was previously exhibited in Subject to Change at Gazelli Art House, London, in 2025.
Aziza Kadyri
Self-Exoticisation Archives IV, 2023
Generative AI, video animation with sound
43 seconds
Edition of 5 + 2 AP