Image Credit: Khadija Aziz, Mirroring the Land Mirroring Us, 2025. Photograph by Shireen Merchant, courtesy of Eastern Edge, St. John’s NL.

Common Threads: Aurora Public Art Festival

Khadija Aziz, Yifu Ding & Zishuo Li, Roda Medhat 

September 16 – 27, 2026
Mirkopoulos Plateia | Aurora Town Square | 50 Victoria Street, Aurora

Common Threads: Aurora Public Art Festival presents three large-scale outdoor installations by Khadija Aziz, Yifu Ding & Zishuo Li, and Roda Medhat that transform the Mirkopoulos Plateia at Aurora Town Square. Working across a diverse range of fibre-based practices, the artists in this exhibition use textiles as a lens to explore identity, visibility, and cultural heritage.  

By bringing textile art – traditionally associated with domestic craft – into the outdoors, Common Threads challenges the perceived divide between the public and private spheres. In doing so, the exhibition highlights the diversity of cultural experiences that shape our community and invites us to consider our relationship to textiles as symbols of belonging and place. Together, the works draw out the common threads between us, celebrating the rich stories woven into the spaces we share. 

Funding provided partly by:

Scheduled Programming

Art Activation: Wish Collection with Yifu Ding & Zishuo Li (all ages) | Saturday, September 12 | 4:00 – 8:00 pm | FREE: Visit the Aurora Cultural Centre’s booth at Saturday Night Fever to participate in a collaborative community art project with artists Yifu Ding and Zishuo Li. 

Introduction to Small Loom-Based Weaving with Roda Medhat (6+) | Saturday, September 19 | 1:00 – 4:00 pm | FREE: Join artist Roda Medhat for a FREE drop-in workshop where you’ll learn the basics of weaving using small wooden looms.  

Identity & Place: Public Art Panel Discussion (16+) | Sunday, September 20 | 2:00 pm | FREE: Join us in-person or virtually for a panel discussion on public art with Khadija Aziz, Zishuo Li, and Roda Medhat moderated by Aurora Cultural Centre Gallery Manager Ashlyn Gregory. 

Contemporary South Asian Mirror Embroidery with Khadija Aziz (16+) | 1:00 – 3:30 pm | FREE: Explore contemporary South Asian mirror embroidery techniques with artist Khadija Aziz in this beginner-friendly workshop. Registration required. 

About the Artists

Khadija Aziz (@_khadija_a_) – Driven by her love of play and unexpected possibilities, Khadija Aziz marries slow-craft techniques with the chance-based results of digital manipulation to transform and distort materials, memories, and images. Her work has been exhibited in Canada, the USA, Australia, and Austria, and has received recognition through awards from DesignTO, Craft Ontario, the Surface Design Association, and the Ontario Museum Association, as well as grants from the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts. Her art has also been published in Canadian Craft Federation, UPPERCASE Magazine, the Surface Design Journal, and TEXTile Manifestos. Khadija is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Harbourfront Centre's Textiles Studio. 

Photograph courtesy of Harbourfront Centre

Yifu Ding – Yifu Ding works across architecture, installation, and digital design. They hold a Master of Architecture from the University of Toronto and an undergraduate degree in Environmental Design from OCAD University. Their work brings ecological responsibility and human wellbeing together with structural, building-system, and visual considerations. Alongside spatial design, Yifu develops installations, and tools for design analysis. Moving between material and computational methods allows them to approach projects at multiple scales, from technical details to broader environmental systems. They are interested in creating thoughtful, technically grounded spaces that support healthier relationships between people and the environment. 

Zishuo Li (@zis_li) – Zishuo Li is a Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Media & Design Innovation at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). Holding an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art, Media, and Design and a BFA in Drawing & Painting from OCAD University, as well as a BEng in Electrical & Computer Engineering from McMaster University, Zishuo's art practice is deeply informed by their diverse educational background. Their research interests revolve around natural materials and environmental justice , seeking to use natural materials to bring their ecological consciousness into various art forms, including installations, sonic art, painting and time-based media.  

Born in China, Zishuo's practice is influenced by Daoism and traditional Chinese philosophy. Their recent works examine the intricate relationship between humanity and nature, investigating how the vitality and agency of matter can open ecological, aesthetical, cultural, and political possibilities for more relational and sustainable ways of living with the world. 

Roda Medhat (@reallyroda) – Roda Medhat is a Kurdish-born artist based in Toronto, Canada working across sculpture, installation, public art, and moving image. His practice rebuilds cultural source material, including textiles, diagrams, archived objects, pop culture, and everyday forms, into structures made from light, metal, acrylic, and air. He is interested in the conditions in which the work can exist, power, pressure, support, access, and maintenance, and how those conditions shape what the work becomes.

His work has been supported by the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and Partners In Art. In 2023, he was the 401 Richmond Career Launcher Prize recipient, and in 2024 he received the CIBC C2 Art Prize.

Roda holds a BFA from OCAD University. Film production at FAMU Film and Television School of Prague. MFA from the University of Guelph.