Invisible Hands, Installation 2020

Invisible Hands is an accompanying installation to my three-part documentary of the same name. It consists of an unfinished hand-made carpet on a loom, all tools required in the weaving process; such as yarn, a knife, scissors, and a metal comb. An audio track introduces typical sounds surrounding the weaver as she works: tools sliding yarn over the loom, cutting thread, hammering to each row into place. The sound of children crying, a stove being turned on, a kettle boiling create a narrative. The creaking of the opening and closing of doors punctuates the weaver’s transition from one role (labourer) to another (housewife and mother). These audible interruptions reveal the concurrent obligations faced by the women weavers, who must simultaneously weave carpets for financial gain while performing domestic chores with no remuneration.

Far from the glamourised portrayals of professional weavers circulated by the media, my installation immerses the viewer in an environment, that highlights the women’s reality; poor working conditions and financial instability. I intentionally omit the weaver from the installation. Her absence strikingly emphasises the discrepancy between the value of her labour and the well-known value of a finished carpet, a luxury item.