Rezvan Rashidi

Fragments of a Lost Paradise

 For nomadic Qashqai weavers, a rug is more than a decorative object, it is a portable world. Rooted in an ancient Persian idea of paradise as a carefully ordered garden, these woven landscapes translate memory, environment, and belief into pattern and color. As nomadic communities moved across vast terrains, the rug became a way to carry a sense of place with them.

Motifs of plants, animals, and geometric fields echo the structure of Persian gardens, spaces designed to bring harmony and balance to the earth. Within each knot lies a fragment of landscape and a trace of lived experience.

This project extends that idea into the present. Just as nomadic weavers embedded their lives and landscapes into rugs, many immigrants today carry fragments of their identity through the personal objects they bring with them, photographs, tools, clothing, small souvenirs, or everyday items. These objects act as contemporary symbols of memory and belonging.

This project explores the rug as both artifact and metaphor: a woven surface where culture, movement, and the human desire for paradise converge.