Grounds For Standing and Understanding

2012

Installation view, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Vancouver

Persian carpet, wood, lacquer, drywall, interior paint
Various dimensions

Grounds for Standing and Understanding reimagines the Persian carpet—a symbol of cultural memory and domestic intimacy—as a blueprint for monumental architectural forms, bridging the ornamental with the ideological weight of urban modernism. By extruding the carpet’s patterns into structures inspired by Brutalism, Constructivism, and Art Deco, the installation critiques the utopian promises of these architectural styles, now laden with institutional power, particularly within rapid urban developments in Asia and the Middle East.

Within the gallery, sections of these forms are magnified, creating walls that compel the viewer to navigate space through a heightened awareness of scale. This physical negotiation reveals architecture’s role in shaping experience, directing movement, and enforcing order. The installation ultimately interrogates the relationship between cultural memory and architectural ambition, positioning built environments as both literal and symbolic foundations that inscribe ideologies of power and spatial hierarchy. Here, the carpet serves not merely as a static artifact but as a conceptual site that challenges our understanding of space, structure, and cultural projection.

Photo: Scott Massey

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Grounds For Standing and Understanding

2012

Installation view
Wood, drywall, interior paint
Dimensions varied

Photo: Scott Massey

+

Grounds for Standing and Understanding

2012

Installation view
Wood, drywall, interior paint
Dimensions varied

Photo: Scott Massey

+