Empty Chairs

A Collaboration Between Fiuz Gallery and Outsider Inn Gallery

A Note on Outsider Art

Outsider Art can be defined as a body of work created by a numerous and diverse group of individuals who often do not see themselves as artists, or feel that they are creating art. For various reasons, they usually work outside the artistic, cultural and academic space of society. In its purest form, Outsider Art is the very essence of visual creation: a spontaneous psychic flow from brain to surface.

Folk Art, as a vast category of Outsider Art, serves as a means to share the cultural and aesthetic values of a society. In Folk Art, we see subjects that are less individualistic and innovative, but rather traditional, religious/ethical, or decorative. A folk artist will draw from an already existing aesthetic capacity, from ancient subjects, myths and fables. We witness traces and elements of Folk Art in self-taught, “primitive” Outsider artists such as CC.

Empty Chairs

CC’s works are a product of his intimate familiarity with rustic rug weaving, where weavers would often create and arrange a vast array of patterns and shapes in a spontaneous and impromptu manner. CC’s works reflect a very similar approach, and while he does not use a loom or a predefined design, he makes generous use of textiles and rugs in order to create personal images, collages and patchwork. By applying paint, adding verses and words, he decomposes the original designs and reinvents them as his own. The size and cut of CC’s works have a strong resemblance to traditional rug samplers (called “vagireh” or “aurang”). His art, while being contemporary in its designs, reminds us of a time where carpets were woven spontaneously, full of faults and errors.

With his playfulness, CC creates a visual language which separates the practical and aesthetic value of his works from traditional clichés. The result is a captivating artistic uniqueness, created free from the knowledge of what will emerge, and how it will be classified.

In “Empty Chairs”, we see this playfulness in full display: he becomes both storyteller and stage designer, the private tailor of both kings and dictators. Like the myths and the fables he has received, from chest to chest, be it in Bazaar alleys or in garment facilities, he invites us into his fascinating depiction, from head to toe, of masculine power.