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ArtEvents

by Alexandra Mansilla

Hope, Strength, And Resilience: 9 Carpets That Speak

23 May 2025

You could spend forever admiring carpets — and every time you do, it is worth remembering that a carpet is never just beautiful. Behind each one is a person who made it. Behind each one is a story.
Until June 3, the BEEAH Headquarters is hosting the exhibition Naseej: Threads of Hope, held under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi. The show is not big — just nine works — but each one is an exclusive handwoven carpet by regional and international artists: Sara Kanoo, Sultan Bin Fahad, Juma Al Haj, Adrian Pepe, Bokja (Hoda Baroudi and Maria Hibri), Faissal El Malak, Hessa Al Suwaidi, Nasir Nasrallah, and Zaha Hadid Architects.
Fatima Deemas, the curator: "The idea for 'Naseej: Threads of Hope' began with a collaboration between BEEAH and the Fatima Bint Mohamed Bin Zayed Initiative (FBMI), aiming to highlight the importance of preserving traditional craftsmanship while promoting sustainable practices through product design. From the outset, we wanted the exhibition to go beyond showcasing — it was also about creating a new body of work with its own narrative. Commissioning a group of contemporary artists to interpret this vision felt like a natural next step. As the artists began responding to the curatorial brief, their proposals presented an opportunity to engage with the newly announced Khalid Bin Sultan Al Qasimi Humanitarian Foundation (KSQF). Their team showed great enthusiasm, as the concept aligned strongly with their mandate and the core values of FBMI. The exhibition thus became a platform that connects artistic expression with purposeful impact. It serves as a prelude to the upcoming charity auction, with proceeds going toward FBMI and KSQF initiatives, supporting both community development and humanitarian programs."
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All nine pieces spotlight children’s well-being, sustainable craftsmanship, and community empowerment through artistic collaboration. Each carpet, produced in collaboration with FBMI and its artisan platform, Zuleya, was handwoven by women artisans in Kabul, Afghanistan. And each one reflects an artist’s take on the theme of children’s well-being, translated into bold, imaginative design.
Fatima Deemas, the curator: "Each artist was chosen for their unique ability to engage with these ideas through their practice, while also aligning with the exhibition’s broader vision of connecting sustainable design with social impact. Rather than simply showcasing existing work, we wanted each contribution to be a direct response to this prompt, creating a cohesive dialogue across the exhibition. The result is a collection of pieces that are both deeply personal and universally resonant, reflecting the power of design as a tool for meaningful change."
What makes Naseej: Threads of Hope so compelling is how each artist interprets the theme of children’s well-being in a completely different way — some leaning into abstraction, others choosing more narrative forms.
Fatima Deemas, the curator: "Several interpretations stood out to me for the way they balanced playfulness with profound meaning. For example, the works by Sara Kanoo, Faissal El Malak, and Nasir Nasrallah approach the theme with a child-like aesthetic — bright, imaginative, and playful — but carry deeply rooted messages about resilience, identity, and emotional strength. Their ability to speak to both children and adults through visual storytelling is incredibly powerful. Adrian Pepe’s piece also left a strong impression. Drawing inspiration from a children’s book, his design explores the idea of receiving messages from the cosmos — a poetic metaphor for the hopes, dreams, and inner worlds of children. It’s these layered interpretations that make the collection so moving and memorable."
We had the chance to speak with the artists about the carpets — the ideas behind them, the emotions woven in. Here is what they shared.
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"When I Close My Eyes I Dream of Adventures and Castles in the Sea" by Faissal El-Malak

Faissal El-Malak

"My work, When I Close My Eyes I Dream of Adventures and Castles in the Sea, illustrates the power of imagination. The structure of the design is inspired by traditional carpets, with a border setting the rules of reality with references to stones and chains. In the middle of the carpet, the design evolves into a surrealist space where waves carry boats to break the chains of reality and advance toward a central medallion representing a fortress in the sea as a safe haven. This work celebrates children's innate capacity to find safety in their minds through imagination."
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"The Wandering Family
Artwork" by Nasir Nasrallah

Nasir Nasrallah

"My piece for the Naseej exhibition is a series of five, character-based carpets that together form a symbolic family. They capture the emotional richness found within every family. While each figure is a complete piece, they are all part of a shared story about connection, care, and belonging.
I chose to explore children’s wellbeing through the lens of family, recognising how deeply a sense of support and emotional grounding contributes to a child’s inner world. To reflect this, I worked with earthy tones, colours that speak to roots, stability, and the quiet strength of familial bonds. These tones ground the characters and echo our deep connection to where we come from.
The idea was to create characters that could travel, to live in different homes, be given as gifts, or accompany someone at work, and still remain connected. Just like members of a family who may live apart but are always tied together by love.
The bold yet gentle forms are inspired by the way children see the world, with imagination, emotion, and openness. The work invites viewers to engage not just with the visuals, but with the idea that wellbeing can be nurtured across distance through presence, memory, and symbolic care."
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"The Journey" by Hessa Alsuwaidi

Hessa Alsuwaidi

"My piece is an homage to both the theme of children's well-being and an ode to the craftswomen who created the carpets for the FBMI initiative. The drawings are intentionally childlike and playful, resonating with my own journey as a textile artist. You’ll see different motifs woven into the design, each symbolic of the places I’ve travelled to in the journey that my chosen path of creating textiles has taken me to. These motifs are not only inspired by the landscapes, cultures, and experiences I’ve encountered but also by the stories and lessons that have shaped my artistic path. In many ways, the act of creating textiles mirrors the innocence and joy of childhood. We use our hands to spin yarn, weave, and craft, and there is a certain calmness that comes with these actions — a feeling that reconnects us to our human side, much like the carefree nature of children at play.
The choice of colours in my design reflects a sense of calm and grounding. Soft, nurturing hues help evoke a peaceful atmosphere, supporting the idea of well-being. The design is meant to highlight the beauty of creating, where the work feels like play and taps into that deep, inner child we all carry with us. Just as children find joy in exploring and expressing themselves, there is a similar joy in the textile craft, where hands become instruments of creation and connection to our past, our traditions, and the essence of who we are."
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The carpet by Bokja

Bokja

"Our design evolved from the original Bisri cushion, incorporating the same motif we later brought to the carpet. This motif was born from Bokja’s advocacy against the construction of a large dam in Beirut, an irreversible project that would have destroyed a beloved pine tree sanctuary. In Lebanon, spending time in nature is a cherished tradition: families gather for picnics while children roam freely among the trees. Through this design, we wanted to preserve not only the landscape but also the memories and freedoms it enables for future generations. The result is a bold statement about the enduring value of nature and the urgent need to protect it."
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"Woven Tales" by Sara Kanoo

Sara Kanoo

“Woven Tales is my interpretation of children’s wellbeing through the lens of storytelling and cultural memory. I was inspired by the longstanding tradition of carpets as visual narratives — objects that carry stories across generations. The design draws from the simplicity and wonder of childlike drawings, paired with the charm of folk art.
At the centre is the palm tree, a powerful symbol in our region, representing resilience, life, and growth. I wanted to depict it in a way that feels playful yet deeply rooted, much like how children see and interpret the world around them. Surrounding it are motifs inspired by local landscapes, cityscapes, and traditional clothing patterns, all woven together to reflect everyday life with a sense of curiosity and imagination.
This piece reflects my broader design philosophy, which places cultural, social, and environmental sustainability at its core. By working with traditional forms and reimagining them through a contemporary lens, I aim to honour craftsmanship, preserve cultural narratives, and celebrate the role of artisans in keeping these stories alive.
Woven Tales is a tribute to community, heritage, and the nurturing of future generations — an invitation to see carpets not only as functional objects, but as living stories woven with care."
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"The World is Round" by Adrian Pepe

Adrian Pepe

"The piece is called The World is Round, after Gertrude Stein’s children’s book from 1939. I was drawn to how Stein plays with language — looping, repetitive, a bit disorienting. It reminded me of how children process the world, how a simple phrase can carry weight when repeated, much like the gestures behind making a carpet. The carpet is just that — a circle of indigo wool set against a field of black goat hair. I was thinking about those first images of Earth taken from space. How something so familiar can suddenly feel distant, suspended, strange. It offers a surface to think through scale, language, and material — something to return to, like a phrase said over and over."
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"Loose Leaves: Woven Moment" by Juma Al Haj

Juma Al Haj

"Loose Leaves: Woven Moment explores the well-being of children through material and texture, using hand-woven fibres dyed in natural hues. This work draws on my continued interest in the emotional and spiritual resonance of language, explored here not through words, but through form and material. Rather than taking a literal narrative, the artwork is a quiet reflection on both the vulnerability and resilience of children, as well as an exploration of the environments and experiences that shape their childhood, which they carry with them as multilayered life lessons."