For writer and artist Ali Al-Jamri, storytelling has always been a medium to intertwine the myths and stories of childhood into the complexities of history and the present day. Al-Jamri, born in London in the 1990s, grew up within a Bahraini community woven together by exile. His understanding of Bahrain was shaped heavily by stories passed down by his elders.  

“We were not able to travel as a full family to Bahrain in the 90s,” Al-Jamri recalls. “So, I grew up on myths and stories of this land that I only got to really see for the first time in 2001 when we moved back. The Bahrain that I saw with my two eyes was not the Bahrain I had imagined as a child.”

The acknowledged contrast between imagination and reality has deeply influenced his creative work. His latest project, The Legend of the Looms, showcased at Blackburn Museum and Gallery, cultivates a unique blend of poetry, film, and textile to share the revolutionary history of handloom weaving. The exhibition, commissioned by the Arab British Centre and the British Textile Biennial, draws on the interconnected struggles of weavers in both Bahrain and the Northwest of England.  

Al-Jamri’s connection to weaving is deeply personal and transcends across several generations. His family has historical roots in Bani Jamra, a renowned center for handloom weaving in Bahrain. Upon his return in 2001, he realized the traditional craft he had heard so much about in his family’s stories had almost disappeared. “At the time that we moved back, there were almost no weavers left,” he says. It became Al-Jamri’s mission to revitalize the story of his culture’s cherished art form.  

His connection to Bahrain was kept alive and vibrant through stories shared by his grandmother. During times of separation, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, their phone conversations became a vital way of staying connected to his heritage.   

“She shared so many stories of Bahrain as she remembered it from her childhood in the 1940s,” Al-Jamri explains. The oral history Al-Jamri received from his grandmother forms the emotional core of The Legend of the Looms. The exhibition’s film concludes with a recording of Al-Jamri’s grandmother reciting a dialect poem from her grandfather. “All of the stories in the poem that are recalled of Bani Jamra relate to people—either from our families or stories my grandmother told me.”   

Although Bahrain remains at his foundation, Al-Jamri has called the Northwest of England, specifically Manchester, home for years. The region’s working-class and radical social movement history left a deep impression on him. “I instantly fell in love with the city because of its rich history of uprisings, its radical histories, its industrial history,” he says. “It’s this kind of underdog history, a history that’s largely written out of the history books.”  

The local history of the Northwest region became a crucial component of The Legend of the Looms. The film centers around the story of two ghostly weavers—one from Bahrain, the other from the Northwest—who engage in a poetic debate. They argue whose hardships were greater, whose struggles were more intense, and whose folk poetry was stronger. As their dialogue progresses, they recognize shared themes among their histories and form an unexpected friendship. Across geographies, across centuries, their hands work the same looms, and their voices weave the same resistance.  

Alongside the film, the textile installation is presented in collaboration with Manchester-based textile artist Ibukun Baldwin, who aims to grow awareness of the neglected needs of marginalized communities through the utilization of the potential of the creative industry. The impressive large-scale textile piece is made with textile produced with the Bani Jamra textile factory, a special piece of home for Al-Jamri.

The Legend of the Looms aims to speak to the ways in which people of the diaspora can find connections in unfamiliar environments, through craft, tradition, memory, and shared struggles. Above all, Al-Jamri seeks to honour the endurance of handloom weavers whose histories remain deeply woven into the fabric of resistance and survival.  

The Legend of The Looms
Ali Al-Jamri | Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery | 1 February – 8 March 2025 | Free
Commissioned by the Arab British Centre as part of As We Are, Might Have Been, and Could Be, in partnership with British Textile Biennial
Supported by Arts Council England and Freelands Foundation

Edited by Maya Amsler