Ferri, Jakub: Untitled (2015)

carpet (acrylic wool on cotton)
Long-term loan from the Peter und Irene Ludwig Stiftung, Aachen, 2016
Keywords

The notion of being peripheral is a key element in Jakup Ferri’s embroideries, intertwining cultural identity, history, and alienation. He produced hundreds of little drawings in the past years, giving an absurd image of humanity. Ferri depicts various situations in thin, fine lines and dots, often sketching circumstances in which people are alienated from their surroundings against their will. He hides reality into his own utopian visions: isolation, the desire to establish contact with the outside world are threads binding imaginary and personal worlds together. The embroideries rely on these drawings, works of art themselves, as well as inspirational sources for the larger siblings. Ferri focuses his visual research on artists deeply involved with folk art and naive art, engaged with different craft techniques. He seeks an authentic, punctual, and unpolished form of expression. The embroideries are the result of a collaboration with Albanian women creating handmade carpets with traditional techniques even today. BK