This woven imagery is then printed onto travertine marble: a material historically tied to architecture, thresholds, and communal gathering. The transfer from fragile paper to porous stone is central: the marble receives the image like an imprint or residue, suggesting how rituals inscribe themselves into built environments. Travertine, marked by sediment and time, becomes a metaphor for the accumulation of memory within zawiyas, where generations of prayer, sound, and presence shape the atmosphere of place. The notion of the “niche” operates both architecturally and conceptually. It recalls recesses designed for orientation and contemplation, while also proposing an interior space — a symbolic chamber where fragments of history, devotion, and healing can be held. The irregular edges of the works echo worn thresholds and partial walls, reinforcing their relationship to lived sacred spaces.

Through the translation of woven archival material into stone, Swinburn constructs quiet portals that invite slow looking. These works suggest that healing emerges not only through ritual acts but also through the preservation, reactivation, and careful reassembly of cultural memory — where materials themselves carry the possibility of reflection, repair, and continuity.

Book Sources:

Archeologie Vivante Carthage edition francaise - Volume 1 and 2 1968 - Las collections des Musees Du Bardo, De Carthage et d’Utique

Tunis Rues de L’Ancienne Medina, Societe Tunisienne de diffusion. Jacques Revault. 1956

Tunisie, Editions Katia, Tunis 45 Av. Bourguiba.

Sites et Cites Du Maghreb, Editions Ceres Productions Tunis, 1975.