London, United Kingdom – Underneath a 536-year-old Islamic-inspired Spanish roof in east London hang three tapestries linking the city’s Muslim communities to Europe’s longstanding Muslim histories. Among the works by artist Shahed Saleem, signs from the British Home Office’s 2013 “Hostile Environment” policy, urging undocumented immigrants to self-deport, are depicted along with images of Muslim shoppers in London’s diverse Queen’s Market and a portrait of Altab Ali, a young Bangladeshi man who was murdered in a city park in a racially motivated attack. The collection, entitled I Was Born Here, is “a story of migration and of belonging”, said Saleem, who is also an architect, author and academic.
Sitting on pillows beneath the ceiling, he invited onlookers to view and discuss his exhibition. Saleem contextualised the works against rising xenophobia, seen recently during the election wins of Reform UK, an anti-immigrant party, and racist riots in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was approached by the Victoria and Albert Museum team in 2024 to create an exhibit for their new Stratford location, the V&A East Storehouse, which responded to the local community and culture, and to the Torrijos ceiling.
The elaborate carved and gilded wooden ceiling, which measures 6 by 6 metres (20 x 20 feet), originated from a palace in the central Spanish town of Torrijos. What followed was hundreds of hours of building three enormous tapestries. The first, named Home Office, depicts verbatim quotes from government signage displayed through diverse neighbourhoods in London.
Back in 2013, intimidation tactics were evident in the language used: “106 ARRESTS LAST WEEK IN YOUR AREA”, “In the UK Illegally?” and “GO HOME OR FACE ARREST”. They are now woven on the fabric, against a backdrop of Alhambra patterns – Islamic geometric art rooted in medieval Spain. A panelled tapestry, Altab Ali’s portrait, honours the textile worker who was stabbed to death in a racially motivated attack in 1978, when he was just 24.
There is also an image of the voyage of the Santa Maria, Christopher Columbus’s vehicle, funded by the Spanish monarchy, marking the beginning of Spain’s colonisation of the so-called “New World” in 1492. In the 1400s, despite centuries of religious plurality throughout Spain, the Spanish Inquisition began violently targeting Jewish and Muslim communities. Reflecting on the exhibit, 26-year-old visitor Hana said, “Although the stories were rooted in the past, you can see that the themes remain alive in today’s public.
In the past year alone, Islamic art has sold for record-setting amounts in London’s auction houses, while anti-Muslim crimes terrorise communities. For Saleem, histories are intentionally interwoven. Elsewhere in the exhibit, The Bell Hotel and the Britannia Hotel, both of which have been used to host asylum seekers, are depicted on a coat of arms.
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