A little visit to Azerbaijan through Faig Ahmed’s handmade carpets

Last night, I visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and stumbled upon this beautiful artwork by the Azerbaijani artist Faig Ahmed.

I had recently read an article on his work, and was therefore very happily surprised when I got to see it for myself. This carpet, “Invert”, is a part of a series of handmade, woolen rugs created by Ahmed. Ahmed works to explore and understand the interaction between contemporary art (such as digitalized or computer inspired art) and ancient art, and combines the two in this series of artistic carpets. He explores the historical and contemporary contexts through experimenting with patterns, colors, and fabric.

“Invert”, 2014.

Carpet weaving is an old Azerbaijani tradition, which dates back as far as 200 BC. Although it is closely related to the Persian rug, the Azerbaijani rug has branched off and nurtured several special traits of its own. It comes in 7 categories: Shadda, Verni, Jejim, Zilli, Kilim, Sumakh, and Palas. The rugs of each category are made with special tools, techniques, patterns and colors, and it takes years to master the technique of each of the carpet categories.

Close up of “Invert”, 2014.

 

The Azerbaijani rug was announced as a Masterpiece of Intangible Heritage by UNESCO in 2010.