March 28—August 2, 2026
TEXTILES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Curated by Monica Huerta and Ava Shirazi
Art@Bainbridge, Princeton University Art Museum
Princeton, NJ, USA
Art@Bainbridge, Princeton University Art Museum
Princeton, NJ, USA
Twice selected to represent Azerbaijan at the Venice Biennale, the artist Faig Ahmed has produced a body of large-scale sculptural works that blend ancient weaving practices from across West and Central Asia with what he calls a “hyper-contemporary” aesthetic. Ahmed begins by creating sketches on paper—some of which are reproduced in the exhibition—that he then further develops with computer renditions. Next, he turns to the loom, working alongside a team of Azerbaijani women weavers, whose practices reach back centuries, to create the monumental woven sculptures that are his signature.
Through his practice, Ahmed transforms the meanings, customs, and stories embedded in patterns that are used in traditional textiles; the artist works to distort and expand these patterns while experimenting with neuroscience tools such as EEGs and eye-tracking technologies to reorient our understanding of the histories and social relations these textile traditions hold. The title Textiles of Consciousness evokes Ahmed’s study of consciousness through Sufi and other ancient spiritual traditions, and the exhibition seeks to utilize the sensory stimuli of Ahmed’s objects to take the visitor on their own journey in reimagining consciousness.
Through his practice, Ahmed transforms the meanings, customs, and stories embedded in patterns that are used in traditional textiles; the artist works to distort and expand these patterns while experimenting with neuroscience tools such as EEGs and eye-tracking technologies to reorient our understanding of the histories and social relations these textile traditions hold. The title Textiles of Consciousness evokes Ahmed’s study of consciousness through Sufi and other ancient spiritual traditions, and the exhibition seeks to utilize the sensory stimuli of Ahmed’s objects to take the visitor on their own journey in reimagining consciousness.
Textiles of Consciousness is an invitation to visitors to experience Ahmed’s works through four sensory themes: pulse, glitch, drip, and fluff. “We invite you to feel—not just to think about—how Ahmed’s sculptural works blur the boundaries between sensation and perception,” said exhibition curators. “The process of ‘looking to experience’ can be slow. But if you sit with the works, and allow them to play with your perception, they can deepen and even compound your sensory experience.
This approach shifts the meanings woven into the works, while also revealing a new way to ‘be with’ art.” “Experiencing Faig Ahmed’s works in the domestically scaled interiors of Art@Bainbridge deepens how they can resonate on the human level,” said James Steward, Nancy A. Nasher–David J. Haemisegger, Class of 1976, Director of the Princeton University Art Museum. “The works’ digital development and their creation by women weavers is an especially potent point of intersection.”
The exhibition debuted a new textile series, Collective Pattern, and a companion documentary based on Ahmed’s ongoing research into cognition and aesthetic perception. The artist and his team used EEGs and eye-tracking tools to measure the brain activity and viewing patterns of participants interacting with carpets from the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum. The new textiles on display were a material representation of the data collected, with the film serving as documentation of the process.