Conditions of Visibility, 2026

A series of miniature handwoven Persian rugs are exhibited with their reverse surfaces facing outward, their ornamental fronts withheld from public view. What remains visible is a network of knots, colored threads, repetitions, and subtle irregularities. The image has not disappeared; it persists within the material structure of its making, though no longer in the form through which it is conventionally recognized.

A rug’s front and back emerge simultaneously through the act of weaving, yet they are assigned different visual hierarchies. One is recognized as the image, the other as its underside. Reversing the rugs interrupts this distinction without proposing the reverse as a more authentic surface or simply exposing the labor beneath ornament. Instead, it presents an alternative visual field governed by the same systems of geometry, repetition, and variation. Their miniature scale further distances the objects from their functional associations, inviting close examination while withholding the ornamental compositions viewers might expect.

The work introduces a second condition through ownership. Each rug must remain publicly exhibited with its reverse facing outward. Upon acquisition, the owner is permitted to privately turn the object over and view its concealed ornamental surface. This permission does not extend to exhibiting, photographing, or circulating that image. Ownership grants access to what is withheld from others, but not the authority to alter the work’s public appearance.

The public and the owner consequently occupy different positions in relation to the same object. One encounters a surface from which the ornamental image can only be inferred; the other is permitted to see what remains concealed. Neither surface offers a more complete or authentic understanding of the rug. Instead, the ornamental front, conventionally regarded as the privileged image, becomes accessible only through possession, while the historically secondary reverse assumes its public identity. The work considers how visibility is governed by conventions of display, ownership, and permission, and how these structures determine not only what can be seen, but who is entitled to see it.