Sulafa Hijazi

A rug - Post orientalism

'From a rather distinct idea of identity Sulafa moves to questioning the impact on self-representation expressed through cultural consumption goods in this work.

Residing in Frankfurt, Germany in 2014, when Jeiroud was met with shelling and bombing, Sulafa asked her cousin, who lives in this village northeast of Damascus, to send her photographs of the typical concrete walls now being the cultural landmark of Jeiroud. An image of the concrete bricks was printed onto a white woolen rug that has the identical dimensions of a Muslim prayer rug. The edges of the rug were handmade in an Iranian carpet store.

In her work A Rug - Post-orientalis, Sulafa Hijazi tackles not only the loss of spirituality as an implicitness of the “modernity” we are facing, she also focuses on the economy behind the changes. By using an object dedicated to religious practice the work is also imbued by the question how much religion becomes a source of industry and whether the commodity market is the new religion.'

>>Excerpt from Rayelle Nemman's article in City sharing.

To read the article press (here)