Faig Ahmed

Interview Faig Ahmed

 

• What did you have for breakfast this morning?

  • Eggs, persimmon, fried pumpkin, nuts and apple juice. And I think I’ve had some yellow acrylic paint because my hands were in acrylic color.

 

• Can you describe yourself in 10 words?

  • energetic, nervous, fair, has loops, scattered, clumsy, dedicated to work, mysterious (even to himself), megalomaniac, in love.

 

• Can you describe your art in 10 words? (We struggledin the office).

  • Glitch, visual, unstable, with humor, ambitious, attempttobreakallpossibleboundariesbutitisverydifficult, not quite traditional, but traditional, sincere, psychedelic

 

• Can you tell us about your background? And where you studied?

  • I’ve graduated from Azerbaijan Art Academy’s Sculpture Department. Been eliminated 3 times and accepted back again and again. I have also entered Masters but rejected to study as a protest.

 

• What is your first memory of art?

  • Forged metal leaf on the kitchen wall – “Jesus and the Virgin Mary”. When I asked my mom why do we have that, she answered that it’s an artwork.

 

• What inspires you the most?

  • Analyzing something totally alone or observing smallest details of nature.

 

• You also worked in film, painting and sculpture. How and why did you move onto traditional carpets?

  • This was a sacred territory which should not be moved to. And I love doing what is prohibited.

 

• Is it important to you to respect the traditional culture and craftsmen and women when making your highly contemporary works?

  • Yes, I really do.

 

• How do come up with the ideas for your works?

  • Differently. They all come from various sources. An idea can come on a loud party when I’m drunk. Or when I’m sitting alone in my studio full of thoughts.

 

• Is your work an East versus West statement? Whereby the west has forgotten its traditions?

  • I think that West has conserved it’s traditions still keeping the identity. East doesn’t want to leave the tradition although it has an ambition to catch up with West. But some of them have succeed in that – UAE, Japan, Singapore etc. These countries have conserved their traditions and keep their identity keeping pace with the times. When it comes to my work I just base it on Azerbaijani culture because it’s more familiar to me. There nothing about East versus West. The transformation I’m doing is possible in any culture and tradition,  including Western.

 

• Do you work alone? Or have you assistants?

  • I don’t have a permanent assistant. I’m pedantic in my work. I have to control all the process. I have assistants to help me from time to time but not on a permanent basis.

 

• These traditional carpets often tell a story. Are you creating a new story or are you questioning the original one?

  • I love working with old stories but the ones that are forgotten. I love discovering them and then building my own stories on their basis.

 

• Your work is hugely powerful in modern society. There is an almost scientific or digital ‘feel’ to some of your creations. Are you a modernist?

  • Practically I am. But when the work starts inside me it has nothing to do with the outer world. But when it comes out it’s always through the prism of modern tools.

 

• You have spoken about: recombining the fragments with contemporary sculptural forms. What fragments are you referring to?

  • It is a concept of my sculptures. This sculptures look like fragments of a huge mechanism and in this mechanism carpet has lost it’s importance which it has in it’s natural environment – at home. 

 

• The contrast between your sculptures which are often playful and your carpets which can be disturbing at first glance is huge. Is this a conscious change in your methodology?

  • It all depends on the mood I’m in although I’m using the same object – carpets.

 

• Who do you admire in the art world at this time?

  • I like some artists, for example Anish Kapoor. But admiration is fraught with imitation. To be honest I don’t understand how someone can admire something made by a human being.

 

• Is there an advantage (or disadvantage) being based in Baku?

  • If we talk about me as a citizen of this city – there are of course advantages and disadvantages. But if we consider me as an artist then I must say Baku is a amazing place to be at the moment – there is so many things happening there.

 

• How long does it take to create one of your works?

  • It depends on size, material and patterns and can vary from 1 to 6 months.

 

• What are you working on now?

  • I have different projects now. One of them is Azerbaijan-Persian miniature paintings of 16-17 century which were full of ideas and extremely beautiful. I’m observing and analyzing them. I’m really interested in how the sacred was treated then with the same philosophy that quantum physics is using now. 

 

• What next for Faig Ahmed? Sculpture, film, deconstructed carpets....what is next?

  • Hadron Collider of art. I’m more interested in installations that make an impact on perception. I also want to direct 3 short movies till the end of 2014.