The THREADBARE paintings juxtapose the harmonious and meditative with the muck and mire of realities on the ground. Intricately patterned remnants of damaged carpets and fabrics are painted with clay slurries in muted earth colors over layers of wet glue, producing a fractured and cracked earth effect.  Through their fissures, torn holes and unraveled weaves, we glimpse open skies and unfurling clouds, painted and derived from the art and design of cultures under assault. Sometimes intertwining forms reanimate what has been lost through violence and unrest, suggesting the possibilities (or impossibilities) of recovery. 

These fields of dry earth, inscribed with decorative patterns that are typically trodden upon and otherwise used in daily life, become “magic carpets,” vehicles for fantasy and dreaming that float above harmonious or escapist heavens. They are platforms for escape, from fear or toward fancy.  In THREADBARE, the carpets fray and fail, despite hopes for rescue and restarting lives on stable, solid ground.

Some of the design sources come from carpets that have been transported themselves, from Syrian, Turko-Persian and North African regions to German art museums—a geographic journey that parallels that of many refugees. By invoking “magic carpets,” I acknowledge but try to undermine the orientalism still prevalent in the west, by portraying the rugs with the material of real earth instead of silk and wool. Even so, humble materials and functional design become extraordinary in traumatic times.  The carpets’ imperfect or wounded condition may evoke empathic unsettlement. They may embody deteriorating dreams, crumbling comforts, the unraveling of ideals and ideologies that have wreaked such havoc in the world.

Nothing But Blue Skies | Threadbare II (Lotus) | Threadbare III | Threadbare IV

The Shape of the World
By Dunya Mikhail

If the world were flat
like a flying carpet,
our sorrow would have a beginning and an end.

If the world were square,
we would lie low in a corner
when the war plays "hide and seek."

If the world were round,
our dreams would take turns on the ferris wheel,
and we would be equal.

From The Iraqi Nights, New Directions, 2014. Copyright 2013 by Dunya Mikhail. 

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