WEHE_ ATHR GALLERY_ JEDDAH_ KSA
Collective exhibition curated by Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte_ Carwan Gallery
MYRIAD_ hand felted wool bench
From a slender metallic capsule emerges rug, recliner, bench and banner: an object with multiple lives and myriad forms. Inspired by the resilience and ritual of ancient life, the raw texture of un-dyed wool can be spread out as carpet, or suspended from the wall. When wrapped around its canister, the fabric gains volume and weight and takes on contemporary form, becoming a seat or headrest, responding to the body at ease. The exposed capsule can be cleaved in two: a single niche transformed to twin vessels.
Felted, quilted, cut, cast and polished, the piece’s materiality reflects centuries of local craftsmanship. Working with wool is labor-intensive, ritualized, manual; its extended temporality mirrored in the ancient process of metal-casting. The economy of its structure and natural texture of its surface recall simpler times, an era when objects were born of necessity, made to last. Ghaith and Jad’s object marries the mysterious with the utilitarian, inviting an encounter both visual and tactile. A union of historic craftsmanship and contemporary design, this object defies single definition: at once architectural and ambiguous, hard and supple, protective and inviting—a body of both bone and fat.
