Carlos Noronha Feio : AA and Away

2 Oct-25 Oct 2009

Overview

Carlos Noronha Feio’s work is engaged with the points at which geography and migration meet, where differing cultures collide, interfere and impose their imperatives on each other. He represents these concerns from the personal perspective of his own Portuguese nationality. For the project AA and Away Noronha Feio uses imagery from Afghan carpets as a starting point, particularly those depicting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. However, Noronha Feio admits that as an ‘occidental’ he stands outside of this cultural history and therefore he intervenes by creating his own designs inspired by the carpets. These designs have been made into rugs by traditional carpet makers from the Casa dos Tapetes in Arraiolos, Portugal. A region where rugs have been made for over a millennium and where the influence of the population’s Arab roots is still very strong.