Traces of Time by Sahel Khalilnejad
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 100 x 150 cm
Year: 2024
Price: $3200.00 USD
Status: available
Inspired by the renowned Clark Sickle Leaf Carpet, a Safavid period masterpiece attributed to Kerman and dating to the 17th century, this painting is a contemporary reinterpretation of one of the most celebrated examples of Persian carpet art. The original carpet is distinguished by its intricate sickle leaf, scrolling vine and palmette motifs, reflecting the extraordinary refinement of Safavid carpet design. In Traces of time, I deliberately transform this historical visual language through the passage of time. The surface is built with a rich tactile texture, while areas of wear, aging and rupture are intentionally introduced into the composition. Rather than recreating the carpet as a pristine historical object, the work imagines it as something that has travelled through time carrying traces of memory, preservation and change. The painting explores the relationship between heritage and time, allowing an iconic traditional motif to exist as a contemporary work of art.
Why collect this work?
Broad, irregular gaps interrupt an otherwise dense carpet pattern, making absence as structurally important as ornament. The design reads less as a preserved model than as an image partially surrendered to time.
- Khalilnejad describes her practice as reworking Persian carpet motifs to consider heritage, memory and change. Here, that aim is focused through a specific historical design rather than generalized decoration.
- In the photograph, scrolling leaves, flowers and a dark floral border retain an overall symmetry, while uneven blank areas break its continuity. This tension between order and erasure prevents the pattern from settling into repetition.
- Catalogued as oil on canvas, the work uses painting to simulate a textile’s patterned field and apparent abrasion. Oil makes possible both detailed motifs and layered disruptions, although physical texture cannot be confirmed from the photograph.
- Encountering this painting beside historical textile imagery could sharpen questions about what reproduction preserves and what reinterpretation changes. Its painted losses frame cultural transmission as selective, incomplete and actively remade.
About the Artist
Sahel Khalilnejad
Sahel Khalilnejad is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: painting. Based in Dubai, AE.
Nationality: Iranian
My work explores the relationship between cultural heritage, memory, and contemporary visual expression.
