I Was Born Here
V&A East Storehouse
April – October 2026

I Was Born Here, a major new installation by artist and architect Shahed Saleem. Commissioned as part of V&A East’s rotating six-month New Work programme, the installation features three large-scale textile tapestries installed directly beneath the monumental late fifteenth-century Torrijos Ceiling in Gallery 3 at V&A East Storehouse.

I Was Born Here bridges centuries of political and cultural history. Saleem’s research draws a direct line from late fifteenth-century Spanish state formation—marked by forced conversions, violent expulsions, and the creation of a Catholic nation-state—to modern border politics, nationalism, and anti-immigration rhetoric in contemporary Britain. Across three machine-stitched and appliquéd works, the installation explores state power, migration, and the enduring resilience of local migrant communities.

The three tapestries use distinct visual frameworks to examine these themes:

Home Office: References the UK Government’s "hostile environment" policy and its 2013 advertising vans. Saleem reproduces the harsh "go home or face arrest" slogan in fabric, layering it over intricate geometric tile patterns inspired by the Alhambra Palace in Granada and historic Spanish ceramics from the V&A collection.

For God and Gold: Adopts a six-panel narrative structure recalling church paintings. It contrasts early Spanish imperial expansion—represented by Christopher Columbus’s Santa Maria and Limpieza de Sangre ("Purity of Blood") policies—with present-day UK political symbols, including anti-asylum protest slogans, removed colonial monuments, facial recognition technology, and a portrait honouring murdered Bangladeshi textile worker Altab Ali.

Queens Market: Rooted in the lived experience of East London, this work originated from Saleem’s field sketches and encounters in Newham. It presents the market as a vital space of migration, daily labour, exchange, and grassroots creativity, highlighting the cultural richness at stake in a climate of growing exclusion.

"Historically, tapestries helped create enclosed, inhabited spaces within a building. Working with textiles allowed me to respond to the Torrijos Ceiling not merely as a decorative artifact, but as an architectural environment that visitors can enter and inhabit," says Saleem. "The fabrics, borders, and trimmings were bought directly in Newham, anchoring broader historical narratives to the everyday textures and material culture of East London."

Moving from sketchbook drawings to large-scale textile works required an iterative process of testing, research, and making. By weaving together architectural thinking, historic research, and textile work, Saleem translated complex political ideas into a rich material language. I Was Born Here ultimately offers a contemplative space for visitors to consider how historic systems of exclusion persist today, while celebrating the strength and everyday creativity of local communities.