Acrylic on Persian carpet

Dimensions: 92 cm (w) x 137 cm (h) 

Acrylic on Persian carpet (framed)

Dimensions: 92 cm (w) x 137 cm (h) 

In the series Impositions (ongoing since 2007) layers of titanium white acrylic paint are applied to the surface of handmade persian carpets, turning the ornamented patterns into a monochrome painting. However, no matter how thick the paint is applied the patterns and colors continuously emerge, transmuting the pure white painting into slightly pastel tones. Through this physical process of layering and additive erasure, a significant and valuable cultural artifact, which is often ignored as a piece of domestic decoration in a larger architectural context, loses its value by defacement. Yet, it gains value through another cultural process: that of turning into a Monochrome. It is precisely this re-contextualization that is at the core of the Impositions. Consequently, these monochromes problematize the institutional legitimacy of form through the Modernist discourse and thus re-contextualize both the carpets and the monochrome painting in order to facilitate a dialogue.