Christopher Joshua Benton’s Where Lies My Carpet is Thy Home

Christopher Joshua Benton, Where Lies My Carpet Is Thy Home. 2024. Astroturf. 6600 x 4200 cm. Commissioned by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi for the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial 2024-2025. Image by Lance Gerber.
Christopher Joshua Benton, Where Lies My Carpet Is Thy Home. 2024. Astroturf. 6600 x 4200 cm. Commissioned by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi for the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial 2024-2025. Image by Lance Gerber.

Christopher Joshua Benton (SMACT ’23) debuts Abu Dhabi’s first-ever artist-designed park for the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial. Where Lies My Carpet is Thy Home is on view November 15, 2024 – April 30, 2025 at the Abu Dhabi Carpet Souk.

Abu Dhabi-based artist Christopher Joshua Benton debuts his largest artwork yet—a public plaza in the capitol city’s carpet souk, the oldest traditional market in the Emirate. Commissioned by the Department of Culture and Tourism, this ambitious work spans an impressive 66 x 42 meters. The result of an 8-month collaboration with the merchants who live and work in the market, the project deeply engages with Abu Dhabi’s vibrant carpet souk and the cultural narratives of homeland in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the shop owners are from.

The creation of the “carpet” is the product of an arduous production process: 3,000 meters of hand-cut astroturf. Larger than a football pitch. 18,000-man hours. 40 construction workers. 800 gallons of the world’s strongest adhesive. 5 tons of steel. A custom, never-before-seen color of astroturf formulated to approximate skin tones. This is Abu Dhabi’s first artist-designed park. The carpet souk is an important location in the cultural consciousness of the city. Built 25 years ago, it is the vision of the country’s founder, Sheikh Zayed, who built and gifted the shops after encountering unhoused carpet sellers in the city. The site is a mostly closed ecosystem, where the men of the souk work on the bottom floor and live in apartments upstairs. The art installation therefore provides a “third space” for the people of the market.

 

Above images courtesy of Christopher Joshua Benton. Photo: Lance Gerber.

Process

Benton’s studio is only 5 minutes away from the site, allowing him to visit the souk daily for 8 months and make friends with the merchants of the market. Nearly every decision is the result of a participatory process, keeping the carpet selling community at the center: including over one hundred 1-on-1 interviews, shop-wide majlis listening sessions, and group drawing workshops. Previously an empty lot of sand, the park emerged from a simple question posed to the shop merchants: if you could imagine anything here, what would you create?

The design is infused with stories of the market: Where Lies My Carpet is Thy Home features a series of cascading valleys, each representing a unique story. From Wali, an Afghani shop owner dreaming of his apple orchard, to Aslaam, a shepherd from KPK, Pakistan, each scene captures the essence of their journeys, sacrifices, and connections to their cultural roots. The design postulates a counternarrative to Afghan war carpets—a homeland carpet—while incorporating a playful, pixelated style reminiscent of kilim-weaving from the 80s.

The built environment for the project was designed in collaboration with award-winning Parisian architecture firm Cutwork Studio, and in constant dialogue with the shop merchants, who attended every meeting with the architects. The design is constructed to resemble a carpet’s borders and features several shade pavilions and majlises for gatherings. The seating references the charpai and the jirga, popular sitting and gathering styles in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as the vibrant custom cushions that the men upholster in the souk.

The art installation is semi-permanent and will remain on-site for at least 3 years. During the 6 months of the biennial, the artist will curating a robust schedule of programming, inviting various artists, poets, and musicians for a series of interventions including weekly programming, events, dinners, poetry readings, photography and drumming workshops, concerts, and sports activities. The artwork is the first destination and centerpiece of the “Carpet Souk” route of the biennial, where guests can enjoy restaurant pop-ups and travel to other outdoor installations along the path.

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