Figues 110cm x 135cm // Plastic, wool // 2017
It is a sweet, soft, enigmatic power that drives us on. We cease to think, to feel, to will; we let ourselves be carried away by it, and ask not whither?”
Abbey Muza’s practice of carpet composition stems from her elongated research into the tradition of Amazigh weaving. She was drawn to the specificity of this style: the intuitive process using non-traditional materials with symbolic devices that are carried by the weaver to the present day.
Her month in Sefrou has fluctuated between two trajectories. One being the assemblage of a carpet on a loom she built in her bedroom, interlaced with plastics and inclusion of found text. The sensorial and sensual nature of this strenuous act accommodates well to her private quarters-the voluminous walls supporting the visceral process of this ancient form of technology.
The other aspect of her work is with the artist/weaver Mustapha L’Ghomari in the medina of Sefrou. Passing on knowledge to Abbey from his father and grandfather, Mustapha revealed techniques on how to spin, thread and warp with great speed on the hand-built loom whilst introducing an online archive with an abundance of motifs to apply to their collaboration. Here, Abbey has initiated five meters of brocade work. She has brought this skill into the studio, modifying Mustapha’s loom for a rhythmical exchange.
Text by Nissa Nishikawa
Photos by Robert Brečević
