Cultural Textile Carpets

Series of five oil paintings on unstretched canvas exploring the appropriation and transformation of cultural textile motifs between Eastern and Western cultures

Cultural Textile Carpets are a series of still-life paintings of culturally significant textiles in my house that embody the fluidity, appropriation and transformation of cultures and traditions. The objects depicted include a sofa and rocking chair connected with my childhood memories, an Egyptian kilim rug, my prayer mat from Saudi Arabia, and an Indian silk brocade shawl. The textile patterns and motifs are echoed in the background to call attention to the material specificity of the objects. Seen together, one notices that the paisley motif on a Saudi Arabian prayer mat is similar to paisleys on an Ashley sofa, thus contradicting the ideology that the East does not meet the West as cultures are fluid identities in constant flux, taking practices of existing traditions to turn into their own. Furthermore, the densely patterned and colourful oil paintings are reminiscent of home as we associate these formal aspects with cultures and traditions, which starkly contrasts Modern home interiors of clean, white sparseness. Tasselled edges on the unstretched canvas make the paintings resemble carpets hung on the wall, following Middle Eastern and Central Asian traditions of hanging carpets and rugs.