Faig Ahmed, Speech of the Birds, 2016. Private collection. © Faig Ahmed.
(PRINCETON, NJ) -- The Princeton University Art Museum presents Faig Ahmed: Textiles of Consciousness as the next exhibition to be held at Art@Bainbridge, the historical house turned downtown Princeton gallery space. The exhibition will be on view from March 28 through August 2, 2026.
Twice selected to represent Azerbaijan at the Venice Biennale, the artist Faig Ahmed has produced a body of large-scale sculptural works that blend ancient weaving practices from across West and Central Asia with what he calls a "hyper-contemporary" aesthetic. Ahmed begins by creating sketches on paper—some of which are reproduced in the exhibition—that he then further develops with computer renditions. Next, he turns to the loom, working alongside a team of Azerbaijani women weavers, whose practices reach back centuries, to create the monumental woven sculptures that are his signature.
Through his practice, Ahmed transforms the meanings, customs, and stories embedded in patterns that are used in traditional textiles; the artist works to distort and expand these patterns while experimenting with neuroscience tools such as EEGs and eye-tracking technologies to reorient our understanding of the histories and social relations these textile traditions hold. The title Textiles of Consciousness evokes Ahmed's study of consciousness through Sufi and other ancient spiritual traditions, and the exhibition seeks to utilize the sensory stimuli of Ahmed's objects to take the visitor on their own journey in reimagining consciousness.
At Art@Bainbridge, Textiles of Consciousness is an invitation to visitors to experience Ahmed's works through four sensory themes: pulse, glitch, drip, and fluff. "We invite you to feel—not just to think about—how Ahmed's sculptural works blur the boundaries between sensation and perception," said exhibition curators Monica Huerta and Ava Shirazi. "The process of 'looking to experience' can be slow. But if you sit with the works, and allow them to play with your perception, they can deepen and even compound your sensory experience. This approach shifts the meanings woven into the works, while also revealing a new way to 'be with' art."
"Experiencing Faig Ahmed's works in the domestically scaled interiors of Art@Bainbridge deepens how they can resonate on the human level," said James Steward, Nancy A. Nasher– David J. Haemisegger, Class of 1976, Director of the Princeton University Art Museum. "The works' digital development and their creation by women weavers is an especially potent point of intersection."
The exhibition will debut a new textile series, Collective Pattern, and a companion documentary based on Ahmed's ongoing research into cognition and aesthetic perception. The artist and his team used EEGs and eye-tracking tools to measure the brain activity and viewing patterns of participants interacting with carpets from the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum. The new textiles on display are a material representation of the data collected, with the film serving as documentation of the process.
The exhibition is accompanied by an artist talk with Faig Ahmed and the curators on March 31 at the Princeton University Art Museum, along with a number of related art-making workshops. Visit the Museum's website for a full list of programming.
Faig Ahmed: Textiles of Consciousness is curated by Dr. Monica Huerta, assistant professor of English and American Studies at Princeton University, and Dr. Ava Shirazi, assistant professor of Classics at Haverford College. Huerta and Shirazi are cofounders of the::sense::archive, a Philadelphia-based art collective and curatorial experiment serving artists of the Global South.
Exhibition Credits
Textiles of Consciousness: Faig Ahmed is made possible by the Virginia and Bagley Wright, Class of 1946, Program Fund for Modern and Contemporary Art; Princeton University's Council on Science and Technology, Department of Art & Archaeology, Department of English, Effron Center for the Study of America, Prof. Dan-el Padilla Peralta and the Magie Fund of the Department of Classics, and University Center for Human Values; the Melanie and John Clarke Exhibition Fund; and generous support from contributors to the Director's Exhibition Fund.
With a collecting history that extends back to 1755, the Princeton University Art Museum is one of the leading university art museums in the country, featuring collections that have grown to include more than 117,000 works of art ranging from ancient to contemporary art and spanning the globe. Committed to advancing Princeton's teaching and research missions, the Art Museum also serves as a gateway to the University for visitors from around the world.
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Please visit the Museum's website for digital access to the collections, a diverse portfolio of programs, and details on visiting Art@Bainbridge.
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