PATTERNS IN PASSAGE
Artists: Aminah Alkanderi & Kiran Joan
A speculative mapping of migration across Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean trade routes, where Patola and Veera
li Pattu patterns, pearl economies, and coastal folklore are translated into a collaborative installation of ceramic figures and handwoven Sadu-inspired textiles.
CURATORIAL NOTE
This exhibition constructs a speculative system of hidden circulations across the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean through Al-Sadu handwoven textiles and double-ikat Patola and Veerali Pattu traditions, translated into sculptural form.
Across the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean coasts were trade routes that carried merchants, stories, pearls, spices, and other goods. These were routes of transformation, where motifs and stories shifted form. Rather than treating these regions as separate cultural origins, the work proposes a shared visual language. Patterns are understood here as traveling forms, capable of changing meaning as they move across oceans.
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This exhibition constructs a speculative system of hidden circulations across the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean through Al-Sadu handwoven textiles and double-ikat Patola and Veerali Pattu traditions, translated into sculptural form.
Across the Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean coasts were trade routes that carried merchants, stories, pearls, spices, and other goods. These were routes of transformation, where motifs and stories shifted form. Rather than treating these regions as separate cultural origins, the work proposes a shared visual language. Patterns are understood here as traveling forms, capable of changing meaning as they move across oceans.
Telia Rumal: Warp on the Loom; Weaver Gadu Srinu, Andhra Pradesh, India; c. 2017; Dastkari Haat Samiti, Google Arts and Culture
Al-Sadu weaving is a women’s handicraft practiced mostly by the Bedouin (nomad) women of the State of Kuwait.
| A Moment of Reflection, 8 × 29, Alpaca yarn, sheep wool, organic cotton |
Kiran’s ceramic works braid two lineages into a single language, the gridded logic of patola double-ikat and the flowing clarity of Kerala mural painting. Motifs drawn from textiles are embedded into expressive spiritual figurines. Sound elements and ceramic chimes activate the space through wind and motion, recalling invisible currents of travel.
In response to HIDE N SEEK, the exhibition asks what histories remain concealed within material culture. To seek is to trace connection across distance without insisting on a single origin. To hide is the way memory becomes embedded in the surface, dissolving into patterns.
Moving through woven routes and ceramic figures, visitors encounter a living system of migration. The exhibition proposes that what we call “patterns” are witnesses carrying traces of commerce and labor across the trade routes between the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
At the center of the installation are collaborative ceramic and textile figures that function as mythic forms. Each character has a symbolic meaning drawn from the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Gulf world. These figures emerge from Kuwaiti Sadu weaving, Gulf pearl-diving economies and maritime exchange, ikat and coastal material.
Aminah’s woven works draw from Al-Sadu, the handwoven textile traditions of Bedouin women across the Arabian Peninsula. Using wool from sheep, goats, and camels, these weavings produced tents, floor coverings, storage bags, and travel materials essential to desert life. These weavings through geometric pattern and repetition encoded tribal identity, protection and environmental knowledge.
In the installation, Aminah’s handwoven works extend these patterns into space as suspended Sadu-inspired structures. They operate as soft architectural routes that viewers move through. These structures represent both loom structure and navigation, creating shifting thresholds that echo the circulation of goods across the Arabian Gulf.
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Aminah’s woven works draw from Al-Sadu, the handwoven textile traditions of Bedouin women across the Arabian Peninsula. Using wool from sheep, goats, and camels, these weavings produced tents, floor coverings, storage bags, and travel materials essential to desert life. These weavings through geometric pattern and repetition encoded tribal identity, protection and environmental knowledge.
In the installation, Aminah’s handwoven works extend these patterns into space as suspended Sadu-inspired structures. They operate as soft architectural routes that viewers move through. These structures represent both loom structure and navigation, creating shifting thresholds that echo the circulation of goods across the Arabian Gulf.
| Joy, | 15.5 × 10.5 × 4.5 in | , |
| Ceramic |
| Kiran Joan In Search of an Audience, Ceramic, 12 × 8 × 4 in 2026 |
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Aminah Alkanderi Balance, Sheep wool, camel hair, organic cotton, 15 × 44 in, 2024 |