ARMOR OF EMPEROR FERDINAND I — 1549 / 2326 For this project, I started from a real historical piece: the Armor of Emperor Ferdinand I, created in 1549 by Nuremberg armorer Kunz Lochner and currently part of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection. I reimagined the armor 777 years later, in the year 2326. A future civilization discovers the armor buried beneath the ruins of a vanished city. But inside there is no body. There is a seed. Over centuries, the armor has stopped protecting an emperor and has become a vessel protecting one of humanity’s last possibilities for life. The goal was not to turn a historical armor into a futuristic version, but to completely transform its purpose while preserving the identity and recognizable characteristics of the original piece. From power to survival. From the past, a possibility of the future.

What if this fragment is not simply what is left of an artwork — but a window into what was lost?

I chose Fragment with a Garden Scene, an early 17th-century Iranian textile from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, because I was drawn to the contrast between its physical fragility and the abundance of life it has preserved for more than four centuries. Although only a fragment survives, its musicians, flowers, plants, silk and metal-wrapped threads still hold the memory of an idealized garden.

That contrast became the starting point for What the Garden Remembers.

Using FLORA, I imagined the fragment moving through time. The project begins with the original artifact and expands its woven imagery into a speculative garden. As the world around it becomes increasingly fragile and architecture begins to decay, the textile survives. Its metallic threads gradually become roots, allowing the garden once represented on its surface to cross into the physical world.

Rather than attempting to reconstruct what originally existed beyond the fragment, I wanted to explore what cultural objects can carry forward when the worlds that created them change or disappear. The original textile remains visible throughout the process, becoming the anchor connecting past, present and future.

Empires disappear. Borders change. Buildings fall. The garden remembers.

Original artwork: Fragment with a Garden Scene Attributed to Iran, early 17th century Silk and metal-wrapped thread; lampas The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Public Domain / Open Access Original artwork link: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/445260