Spike Island is proud to present Matters of time, the first institutional solo exhibition by Libyan artist Nour Jaouda (b.1997, Libya). Jaouda’s new commission at Spike Island will be her most ambitious to date and continues her ongoing exploration of the fluidity of cultural identity.

Jaouda’s multi-layered textile works traverse the languages of painting, sculpture and installation to produce ‘landscapes of memory’. The forms, colours and motifs within her intricately textured surfaces gesture towards different encounters across time and space, drawing on the artist’s childhood in Libya and experiences of living between Cairo and London. Organic and geometric forms reveal themselves within her layered topographies, evoking images both real and imagined: spectral presences and absences within the shadows of memory.

Each work is intimately hand-crafted through a slow, meditative process. Jaouda begins by treating and dying her fabrics with earthy, saturated pigments, a process through which the physicality of her materials is altered and colours come to life. Then comes a process of décollage, or cutting out, which Jaouda describes as ‘a radical and poetic strategy that is as much destructive as it is constructive; where the act of undoing and unbuilding becomes an addition rather than negation to the work.’ Rebuilding layer upon layer, the fragments are reassembled into sculptural tapestries. For Jaouda, this process of material construction and deconstruction mirrors the rooting and uprooting of the self within her migratory existence. As she elaborates: ‘cultural identity is formed through a constant process of becoming.’

Jaouda’s new installation for Spike Island takes inspiration from the ‘Khayamiya’, an intricately patterned textile that is created through the ancient craft of appliqué and applied to the interior of tents. Functioning as both ornament and shelter, the ‘Khayamiya’ tent often serves as a temporary ‘third space’, erected within Cairo’s dense urban areas for moments of gathering, such as funerals, Ramadan rituals and Eid celebrations. For Jaouda, the intimate tentlike environment she creates within Spike Island’s monumental gallery is also a memorial space, where viewers are invited to come together, sit and reflect. Drawing on memories of botanical landscapes, sewn onto the tent are deconstructed shapes of indigenous plants and trees that have once been uprooted. Within this sheltered retreat, Jaouda constructs a space to mourn an absent landscape.

The appliqué process is realised in collaboration with master craftsmen from Cairo’s historic Chariah-el-Khayamia, or ‘the street of the tent-makers’. Interpreting drawings developed by Jaouda, the designs are hand-embroidered by a team of craftspeople onto the artist’s primed and hand-dyed textiles. An additional layer of appliqué realised by Jaouda completes the work, constituting over 12 metres of intricate design.

This project straddles personal narratives and social histories, exploring ideas of movement, rootedness and the artist’s own complex sense of cultural identity. It delves into the transitory nature of belonging, while examining the spiritual tension between preservation and decay. Creating shelter within this context transcends a physical structure – it becomes a sacred act of hospitality.

Nour Jaouda

Nour Jaouda (b. 1997, Libya) lives and works in Cairo and London. As she yo-yoes between both cities, her artworks limbo sculpture and painting. Jaouda’s large-scale dyed tapestries mirror the shape of prayer mats from her immediate surroundings in Cairo, incorporating steel elements both crafted by the artist and found in her environment. In this way, her work straddles personal narrative and social history; past and present.

Jaouda has a master’s degree in painting from the Royal College of Art, London. Recent solo exhibitions include: Spike Island, Bristol, UK (upcoming), Art Basel Statements (with Union Pacific), Basel, Switzerland (2024), Where, if not faraway, is my place?, Union Pacific, London (2023). Selected group exhibitions include: Poetry of the people – stemmen uit Azië en Noord Afrika, Wereldmuseum, Netherlands (2025), An Uncommon Thread, Hauser & Wirth, Somerset, UK (2025), And all that is in between, Islamic Arts Biennale, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2025), Being Mediterranean, M.O.C.O. Panacée, Montpellier, France (2024), On Feeling, curated by Peter Davies, The Approach, London, UK (2024), and Foreigners Everywhere, 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Venice, Italy (2024).

Jaouda’s works are in the collections of: Arts Council England, Tate, the Hepworth Wakefield and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.

Partners and Supporters

The exhibition is produced with generous support from Foundation Foundation, The Elephant Trust, Union Pacific and the Nour Jaouda Commissioning Circle: Alia Al-Senussi, Maria Sukkar, Lukas Zueger-Knecht and those who wish to remain anonymous.