Ben Osto introduced me to this interesting combination of tradition and contemporary as well as tribal and pop.
ArtNet Story
Author Archives: Kevin
Low Tech: Mongolian Felt making
Weavings of War Exhibition Review
Hozain, who weaves on a loom in her home, is one of dozens of textile artists from around the globe whose work is included in a traveling national exhibit.
…
The common thread among these women of South Africa, Vietnam, Peru and the Middle East is the influence of warfare on their communities, said Lisa Gabbert, a humanities professor at Utah State University and project director. “This exhibit is important because it places women’s voices at the forefront of a public discussion on war,” Gabbert said. “Women’s voices, particularly the voices of poor women from developing countries, are usually left out of such discussions.”
Previous Posts about Weavings of War:New York opening, Hali review, , exhibition photos, and example of WoW rug and regular Baluchi pattern.
Miami University Art Museum Exhibition Link Roundup
Here are a few links about the exhibition at the Miami University Art Museum.
Some of the rugs in the museum exhibition serve as warnings to people to be aware of unexploded ordinances, illustrating what not to touch. Others contain maps and other images that detail the Soviet occupation, and later, the terrorist attacks against the United States in 2001.
“These rugs are quite mysterious,” he [Kremmer] said. “They haven’t been studied in any great detail, who made them and why, what are the messages. That’s why this exhibit is important.”
Link from The Journal News
And a Symposium description from The Oxford Press
The featured exhibition, “Tanks, Helicopters, Guns and Grenades: The Afghan War Rugs,” explores how the changing political landscape of Afghanistan, beginning with the Soviet invasion of 1979, has influenced the rug weavers of the area as they replaced traditional motifs with modern weaponry and warfare.
The result is an art form that resides precariously “alongside contemporary and avant-garde art, and political
art and propaganda,†Marsh said. This exhibition will showcase approximately 80 war rugs from a private New York collection and offers a rare opportunity to investigate the complex historical, political and social realities of this region.
From Richard Jones’ Blog
Another Richard Jones’ blog entry with photos by Nick Daggy
Miami University Art Museum War Rug Exhibition
Warrug.com is proud and honored to lend more than 80 rugs from our collection to the Miami University Art Museum for an exhibition titled, Tanks, Helicopters, Guns and Grenades: The Afghan War Rugs of the 1980s-2007. The wide ranging and thorough exhibition runs through December 15, 2007.
The show was curated by Natalie Marsh, who did excellently selecting, organizing, and hanging the rugs. The Museum will host a symposium with Christopher Kremmer as keynote and featuring the very respected Afghan scholar Thomas E. Gouttierre, Homayun Sidky, Daniel Prior, and Weavings of War, Fabrics of Memory curator Ariel Zeitlin Cooke. (Previous post about The Weavings of War, and another about its opening in New York.) I will be giving a gallery talk on collecting Tuesday, September 25 at 4:00 pm.
Special thanks to everyone who worked organizing, preparing, indexing, and hanging the show, as well as everyone who supported this important exhibition at Miami University.
Event description.
Exhibition information.
Curator, Natalie Marsh, giving a tour of the exhibition to Museum members on opening night.
Banana Pattern Prayer Rug
This rug combines a ‘Banana Pattern’ with a Adreskani or Kowdani mihrab.
UPDATE: The rug above is my very favorite. Note willful abrash in green and the fluorescent pink just off center.
King Zahir Shah Dies at 92
Super Mario Rug
This Mario Rug in the style of Super Mario Brother 3 shows Mario riding a white horse.
The horseman is the original figurative image found in carpets. Horsemen are found in the wolrd’s oldest carpet, the Pazyrik, from the 5th century BC. This ancient image, the horsemen, coupled with an icon of digital culture, Mario, is beautiful.
More images of the Mario Rug here.
This rug is on loan to an exhibition at The Miami University Art Museum. The exhibition will feature approximately 70 war rugs that warrug.com is honored to have lent to the museum. More exhibition information, including dates for symposium and gallery talk by Kevin Sudeith, here
Note: This is a tribal rug, reflecting one weavers artistic vision. This rug was selected, with 25-30 others, from a collection of traditional design Afghan Baluchi rugs from Herat and Farah. All the other rugs were of traditional designs bearing no war motifs or western images.
More rugs here.
Iraq Rug: 1930’s Precedent for Map Rugs Showing Provinces
Ever wonder where weavers got the idea to depict, color and outline Afghan provinces in map rugs, like this rug (War Rug #299) ?
Below is a stunning semi antique rug recently acquired by warrug.com establishing a precedent for rugs depicting a country subdivided into different colored and outlined provinces. The rug below is all silk pile on silk foundation, 5′ x 6′, mid 20th Century, first half 20th century, woven between 1929 and 1940. It is available, please contact us for more photos and information.
Update: Researching this rug has been a challenging and intriguing process. The date attribution is based on development of the railroad in Iraq.
Identifying the signature has also been a challenge, but I have now concluded the signature reads, unbelievably, “Made by the female prisoners of Iraq.” *shock*
I know of a published illustration of a Tehran rug, circa 1920, showing “The Map of Modern Iraq”. It shows provinces outlined, named, and rendered in different colors, as well.
Above is also an excellent precedent for these Iraq war rugs as well:
Vegetable Dye Iraq Rug, available
Shahyaad Square
Shahyaad Rug 1
Shahyaad Rug 2
Link to Google maps. I put a marker at a proposed perspective point for the photograph,probably a postcard, used as a source for these two rugs.
Mashad pictorial rugs of Shahyaad Square
These rugs are from the past 5 years, aproximately 2’10” x 4’10”, wool warps, cotton wefts, dry pile wool.
Here is ‘mirror’ version of Shahyaad 1
Below is the closest photo I can find. Note similarity of white curb markings in photo and on rug.
