Spell Chadors

Patchwork, in conformity with migration, whose degree of affinity with nomadism it shares, is not only named after trajectories, but 'represents' trajectories, becomes inseparable from speed or movement in an open space. (A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze and Guattari)

Spell Chadors are fabric sculptures which can be hung from the ceiling or worn; each chador is approximately 350 cm wide x 190 cm long, the approximate size of a traditional wearable chador [see chador]. These chadors are created with scraps of black crepe fabric collected from Iranian shops which sew chadors for women and in the bazaars. Inspired by the art of talisman-forging in the Middle East, a spell is then painted, embroidered or cut on each scrap so the chador in its totality turns into a collective structure of spells in the form of drawings, diagrams, maps, cuts, etc. Some of the spells incorporate the fabric manufacturers' silk-screened gold labels known as 'marks' which are often discarded [see gold mark ].

Each scrap represents a spell with a different intention -- from everyday wishes and mundane affairs to otherworldly incantations and socio-political charms [see spell list]. Hence the combination of these spells mobilizes the profound syncretism inherent not only to chadors but also socio-political ideologies and orders of the Middle East. Short-circuiting the natural or ordinary system of causation, these talismans are, therefore, the ideal vehicles for departing from the established order or cause. Moreover, middle-eastern talismans contain accelerating components which usually appear as different words for speed in various middle-eastern languages. Middle-eastern spells are sometimes prescribed to be used with elemental components (air, fire, water and earth) or to be placed in specific locations to effectuate their intention and be activated. In Spell Chadors, woman is a catalyst to speed the activation of spells, releasing syncretic or even conflictive inclinations within each chador as a socio-political manifestation of middle-eastern drapery. When the spells are stitched together into an open-ended patchwork chador and worn by women, they become activated by speed and movements and diverge or converge depending on the distribution of folds. These speeds and movements not only belong to woman in motion, but also the patchwork space (the stitched scraps) and the metamorphing spells.

In the past, talismans were mainly created on paper and sometimes engraved on copper or silver plating. However, there are rare examples of talismans used on clothing. Spell Chador talismans are infused on the black chador fabric which is thin and somewhat see-through. In the infusion process, the paint seeps all the way through the fabric in a similar way paint goes through a mesh screen creating an addition to the fabric. The captured pigment takes on a translucent quality which is mainly seen on one side of the fabric. The chador may be worn with spells to the outside so the spells can become visible and hence be activated. Alternatively, the spells can to be worn closest to the woman's body to further activate the spell by the feminine haptic input. The woman-wearer again becomes the catalyst by which the clandestine bonds, conflicts and conjunctions inherent to each chador begin to loom out. Although in touch with the body of the wearer, the spells are in fact operating in-between the wearer and the outside. In Spell Chadors, some spells require subtraction; they are made and activated in accordance with the logic of perforation and entities representing such logic -- wounds, cuts, fissures, lacerations and ultimately scrapes themselves. These are the spells which should be described negatively rather than positively as in the case of spells which have already been filled with an intention or purpose. Torn, cut and lacerated, scrapes themselves are the outcomes of the logic of perforation; they are evidences attesting to the effectuation of such logic. In Spell Chadors, negative or subtractive spells are in the shape of gashes, gaps and slashes which are cut into the black fabric. The body of the woman-wearer is entrapped and exposed by these gashes and cuts, thus it becomes part of the spell itself. Subtractive spells are the elements of chador which can be illustrated as 'pre-established' wounds, fissures or cuts to which the woman's body is applied when the chador is worn. Moreover, rips and cuts signal holes to move through, new territories to traverse. In this sense, cuts or subtractive spells manifest spells as short-circuits which induce change by twisting and circumventing the natural system of causation. The idea of metamorphosis and radical change does not always adhere to the logic of change by addition but also and more frequently corresponds with subtraction; the holes and fissures by which one reaches the other side without traversing the suggested path. The radical experience is that which is undertaken through wounds and cuts. In terms of subtractive spells, by wearing a spell chador, it is not only the woman-wearer who experiences the other side (the outside) through a wound but also the outside or the other experiences the inside (the woman-wearer) through wound [see subtractive spell].

For individual spell images see spell list page.