ABSTRACT EXPRESSION: East meets West – Ilos Ilyas Elias Kirkan

They say “East meets West” – yet for some, east lies far away, and for others, it is west that feels distant. For me, both live within – they dwell in my whole being, woven into the threads of my memory.

The finest handmade kilims are born in the East of Turkey and the West of Iran – the land of mountains, dust and colour – mainly crafted by Kurdish women whose hands carry generations of patience, love, caring and song. My deceased old mom was one of these women.

When she was pregnant, she wove a kilim for each of us, her children – one for every heartbeat she carried beneath her own. Even before I took my first breath, her fingers were already weaving my story – knot by knot, stitch by stitch, seam by seam, colour by colour – into the fabric of something that would outlast both of us.

Now, when I look at that kilim and kilims in general, I see not just wool and pattern, but a map of belonging – the east and west meeting within me.
Hence why I paint – on canvas and on carpets – canvas being the west and the carpets being the east within me, bringing both parts of my being into the open. This is for me truly where “East meets West” or where “West meets East” – not as a concept, but as the expression of my very raw and honest being.
So when I paint, I breathe. It drags me back – into myself, into something deeper than my whole being, deeper into my history, my people, my soul.

Come with me, join me in that breath, don’t just look at the piece. Take your time – let your breathing take over and let your chest catch it, let the pulse match it. Let the piece take you, carry you. Not later, not someday – now, let it take you on its own journey to another realm.

Conceptual Danish-Kurdish Artist KIRKAN, Ilos Ilyas Elias is an abstract artist and Mental Ideas ambassador.