Artist Reimagines Traditional Weaving With Unexpected Carpets

For Azerbaijani artist I do AhmedThe carpet can be more than just a rectangle, square or circle. Instead, it can go beyond those traditional boundaries and infiltrate the ground, and gather in Sticky ponds; It can explode in layers on layers of threads, criticism; It can be intersection with defects and chain like a wave. It can even be formed on the recycling mark. Regardless of their shape, it is clear that Ahmed’s carpet is as innovative as it is ambitious.

Above all, though, Ahmed’s practice reflects his culture. Azerbaijan is proud of a rich date when it comes to traditional carpets, which was announced in 2010.Timing“From UNESCO. Aside from decorating homes, these carpets are also woven for medical purposes, wedding parties, child birth, mourning rituals, and prayer, while the act of the tissue itself is deeply included in its life common to natural corridors.

Last year alone, Ahmed offered countless carpets in exhibitions and museums all over the world. In January 2025, for example, Sapar Contemporary hosted in New York KnotHis third individual exhibition with the artist. Suitable, Black knot It is a pivotal point for the exhibition, depicting a traditional wool and silk rug that turns, in the middle of it, into a huge knot. Unlike the rest of the carpet, this knot is completely black, and it is a blatant contrast with vibrant colors and patterns over it. It seems that the huge scale of the knot weighs the rest of the carpet, indicating a kind of tension between the traditional and contemporary manifestations of crafts, employment and history. That battle between the past and the present, which is not surprising, is another animated force behind the work of Ahmed.

Last year, at the Maria Arts Center in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates, Ahmed was deeper, given the relationship between neuroscience and art. The exhibition, entitled Awareness of flowA variety of carpets appeared, including Block 2024 Shervishah. The title carries an old flavor, referring to Sherfan, a historical area in Azerbaijan, which was home to famous poets such as the Nazami Gangavi in the twelfth century. The carpet itself is inspired by the traditional patterns inside the region, although it is largely like Black knotThe configuration quickly dissolves around the mid -road point. Here, the pattern appears to melt and drop small drops across the wall, which, despite the interruption, creates a poetic sense of continuity.

“It is interesting, even with computer technology and modern abstract images, my carpet is produced in the same way that was produced a few thousand years ago,” Ahmed said in interview with Mineral Magazine. “The carpet is a language, a traditional local language.”

To learn more about the artist, visit FAIG Ahmed website.

For years, faig Ahmed turned the traditional Azerbaijani carpet into innovative forms, including sticky ponds and giant nodes.

Ahmed finds primarily an inspiration for carpet weaving techniques in Azerbaijan, which was considered a “masterpiece of concrete heritage” by UNESCO in 2010.

I do Ahmed: Website | Instagram

sources: Traditional Azerbaijani carpet art in the Republic of Azerbaijan; Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum; Faig Ahmed: behind the iron carpet

Met Met has given permission to distribute photos by faig Ahmed.

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