The Obligation of the Circle: Christopher Joshua Benton

For his first solo exhibition, Christopher Joshua Benton presents The Obligation of the Circle at Baró O-Contemporary in Abu Dhabi. Benton, an American artist who has been based in the United Arab Emirates for the past ten years, introduces his new series of tapestries. The exhibition also includes part of his collection of Afghan war carpets and a community wall: a large photographic installation accompanied by printed images documenting various interventions that have taken place at the souk. Together, these elements create a dialogue between memory, territory, and collective practice.

At the heart of the exhibition are eight new handwoven works that explore the intertwined narratives of migration, gendered labor, and the desire for homecoming. If Benton’s earlier project, Where Lies My Carpet is Thy Home, focused on the lives of men working and living above the carpet souk in the Emirates, this new body of work traces a “cartography of return” — one that connects the intimate labor of weaving to broader histories of displacement, community, and care.

The Obligation of the Circle expands on the artist’s ongoing inquiry into civic imagination and collective belonging. By convening diverse publics around shared acts of making and storytelling, Benton invites reflection on how urban narratives are shaped, how communities coexist, and how artists can produce spaces of empathy and exchange within their environments.

The exhibition also includes a selection from Benton’s personal collection of Afghan war carpets and a community wall, a large-scale photographic installation accompanied by printed images documenting interventions that have taken place in the souk. Together, these elements build a dialogue between memory, territory, and collective practice, transforming the gallery into a site of reflection and encounter.

Proceeds from the production of the works support Zuleya, a social enterprise that preserves Afghanistan’s ancient weaving traditions through education, free healthcare, and sustainable employment. In collaboration with a weaving circle of women in Kabul, Afghanistan: Fatima, Fawzia, Qadria, Tahira, Zahra, Zakia, and Ziagul.

The Obligation of the Circle will open on November 21, 2025, from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM, coinciding with Gallery Night at Abu Dhabi Art 2025, and will remain on view until March 13, 2026.