Danish’s tapestries are anecdotal and humorous with a keen sense of irony. Mismatched textiles, well-known images, and cultural references are combined in quietly incisive reflections on historical events. Visual vocabularies associated with satire and play blend to pose questions around repeatedly used signs and phrases, and how they shape our perception of the world. Today in History foregrounds a global influx of daily news and mass media images saturated with masculine and heraldic representations – suited politicians on their podiums giving press conferences, signing protocol agreements, shaking hands, and posing as part of election campaigns.
The tapestries are constructed using Western and Egyptian fabrics: gobelin, jacquard, and Akhmim each carry an association to the events depicted. Officials flanked by ornate furniture strike a pose against an abstracted pristine beach. The design for the palm tree under which the formal exchange takes place is appropriated from an Hermès scarf, and it is realized here using the ancient Akhmim weaving tradition, a laborious and complex technique for hand- loomed cotton and linen fabrics.
Danish draws on technical similarities between medieval banners and khayamiya, which both make use of the appliqué stitch. Traditionally, tentmakers in Cairo crafted ornamental banners with Islamic patterns and ancient Egyptian designs by sewing cut-up textiles onto a foundation fabric. In Today in History, the contrast between bespoke craftsmanship and the ephemerality of media coverage, with its recurring themes and motifs, points to the cyclical nature of power, history, and image-making.