Imagining Ardabil
This piece was inspired by the Ardabil Carpets, a pair of ancient Persian rugs that were taken from an Islamic shrine, separated, altered, and placed in Western museums. I incorporated the colors and patterns of the Carpets into the woman's dress. She reclaims the artwork by wearing it proudly. She interrogates the audience with a heavy gaze that demands answers for how colonialism has disrupted our connection with cultural identity by displacing art and artifacts. Through research I learned that once the rugs were taken to museums in the West, the border of one rug was torn off and used to repair the other. This fragmentation of a piece of my ancestral legacy deeply troubled me. The woman's hijab is painted the color of the removed border of the rug to reflect how Muslim women’s hijabs are forcibly removed by people or mandates; which are cruel attempts to force assimilation and homogeneity that only further Islamophobia.
In 2020, this piece was selected as a finalist for the American Muslim Futures art exhibit out of over 350 submissions. The virtual exhibit is ongoing and can be viewed at the American Muslim Futures website.
Oil on canvas, 42x30 inches, 2020