A Song for the Xeedho – The Knot Makers

Presented at Whitechapel Gallery throughout Backyard Biennial, A Song for the Xeedho (Hey-ro) is an interactive installation that centres the Xeedho, a wedding basket made by Somali nomadic women which has become endangered due to the climate crisis.

Created collectively through weaving, ropemaking, and intricate knot-work, the basket is placed inside a cloth tensioned with knots that become a key part of the wedding ceremony. Ismail explores knots as objects that bind, create tension, conceal, and resist being undone, while also representing a survival skill essential to nomadic life.

The Xeedho becomes a container for exploring how human and non-human knowledge, memory, and survival are transmitted collectively between Somali nomadic women across rural and urban landscapes.

‘This project begins with a lost photograph. Taken in Somaliland in 1998, my mother sits with her sister and another woman against a bright blue wall, their hands moving quickly as they twist plant fibres into wedding rope. They speak and laugh from the sides of their mouths as they work, fibres held between their teeth, their fingers moving like mercury. It felt like watching a kind of magic, women transforming plants from the land into something strong enough to hold a house together.’

The installation will be activated throughout the exhibition with public events and closed community workshops.