Rushdi Anwar

Reframe “Home” with Patterns of Displacement
2017
Carpet pieces and HD video sound installation, one channel 20’ 30’’

Reframe “Home” with Patterns of Displacement was inspired by the artist’s return to the Kurdistan Region in Iraq in 2016, where he spent nearly four months working in the Arbat, Tazade, Ashti, Bardarash and Kasnazan refugee camps.

Across the Middle East, carpets of various sizes are commonly found – they are woven cultural elements that gather together family and community. While visiting the refugee camps, the artist was struck by how the families there still managed to own carpets or rugs in their new “homes”. Such carpets illustrate – he believes – their need for a semblance of holeness in their lives. The carpet presented here is not whole – it is formed of discarded fragments – laid beside one another as if to reconstruct the carpet’s narrative, but the designs barely match up. The discord in pattern and the irrevocable gaps in between each carpet fragment stand as harsh reminders of what can never be reclaimed and reconnected – of loved ones, loved cities and lost friends.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts and was supported by the Victoria State Government through Creative Victoria.