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Sculptural Handbags

Hand-felted wool, hand stitched, metal clasp and buckle chain.

This sculptural felt handbag unfolds like a nomadic black tent resting briefly between journeys. When opened, its long triangular body resembles a portable shelter stretched across the earth; when folded and secured by its small metal buckle, it becomes intimate and protective, a vessel for memory, movement, and silence.

The felt panel itself is recent, carrying the language of the artist’s current practice: spiralling stitched pathways, hand-bound edges, and scattered coloured fibres caught inside dark wool like fragments of distant landscapes. Yet the form recalls a much older emotional memory, a few summer days spent as a child in a village near Persepolis, an experience that remained quietly alive for decades.

The work does not attempt to document village life literally. Instead, it holds onto sensations: the feeling of vast skies at night, folded black nomadic tents, rough wool textiles, temporary shelters, and the mysterious beauty a child carries away from places only briefly touched. Some memories stay unfinished and therefore become permanent.

The buckle is the emotional centre of the piece. More than a fastening, it acts like a ritual of protection and concealment. It transforms the open textile landscape into a guarded interior space, as if memory itself is being folded inward and carried from one life into another.

The crossed stitching along the edges echoes repair, endurance, and handmade survival. Every visible seam resists industrial perfection and preserves the warmth of touch and labour. Existing somewhere between handbag, textile sculpture, and portable architecture, The Buckled Black Tent speaks about how brief encounters can shape a lifelong visual language.