Persian carpets are highly desired in European interiors, where they are treated as consumer goods: worn down, bleached and copied as monochro-matic machine-made versions. This contrasts sharply with the carpets’ revered status in Iran and its diaspora. No Shoes on the Carpet reclaims cultural agency of the Persian carpets from a diasporic perspective, inviting participation in the tradition of carpet making as a form of storytelling despite lost techniques and limited resources. It empowers the continuation of this ancient practice by any means available, including improvised materials and methods, as an act of cultural survival. Using materials from shoes – mesh, leather and laces – the project subverts the shoe’s dominance in Western spaces, transforming it into a canvas. Inspired by traditional Iranian carpets with symmetrical garden motifs, these works present carpets not as symbols of victimhood, but as acts of resistance, creativity and resilience.
