So I am still taking the less traveled road looking for the symbolism for I believe Osama bin Laden has hooked up to the Maoists - where else to go? Quilts - abstract art - and now get a load of these abstract carpets....... Imagine you are an artist - like Denver, who the hell created that monstrosity but to permit it to be built at an airport? Consider Cyrus of Persia and the Koresh touch and all these serpent eggs like pods and clones growing in America - Manchurian Candicates, for this is what it is all about - the kamikaze mind? A bit of the oriental touch? So if interested is seeing other pictures - get a load of this stuff. Meanwhile I am going back to where Osama lives - wasn't that the place where the now murdered Royal Family of Nepal tried to save the huge statues which were destroyed - for the King and Queen said they belonged to the world - you know, sounded more like the UN taking our Heritage Spots? Is this though the Manchurian Connection - make do with what have, but like Hogart leave a 300 year paper trail and here we have the "carpet".......a piece of history? Pull up under subject matter to see the fiery birds in the sky and the history of a war, Hammer and Sickle - so Maoists mixes well with what? Red Star and all. Regardless here are the Fire Birds, the Rising Sun, and Phoenix Bird in aggressive state and the rising from the ashes.......so is Osama in with Taoists of Nepal, etc. These carpets do they predict the past, or the future......school in Kabal called Scorpions use as symbol.. Saba Woven Icons of War [© Charles Lewis] "Woven map of Afghanistan" By Charles Lewis, Ph.D Oct.-Dec. 1999 Lemar-Aftaab The incorporation of war imagery into a recognizable rug design has been an unusual outgrowth of the Afghan-Soviet War (1979-1989). The flow of these war rugs or war aksi (smaller size carpets with a predominance of war iconography) from Afghanistan and the refugee camps to the West has been documented in several articles in the Oriental Rug Review (O'Callaghan, 1997; O'Connell, 1997). Expert opinion has been able to trace the origins of these rugs (refugee camps in either Iran or Pakistan, or Afghanistan itself) based on details of their construction or from details of weaponry that fit a specific theater of combat (verified by Russian veterans of the conflict). Personally, I have favored certain subsets of these carpets. These rarer cases either hide minimal war imagery in the overall rug design or most fascinating of all, appear to tell a story of terrible struggle in a sequence of images in the rug much like some primitive silent movie, but rich with colors. These rugs stimulate my imagination and I would like to take a few moments to try and pass this fascination on to those who are the inheritors of the proud traditions of Afghanistan and perhaps of the War itself. The first example is from my previous work (Lewis, 1997); it shows a Belouch rug with an unusual weft float brocade design at the ends, and a most unusual symbolism pertaining to the War throughout the pile of the carpet. Notice the accurate map of Afghanistan in the top portion of the rug. A bomb with a hammer and sickle insignia is falling towards it. Helicopters, jet planes and tanks hover in the periphery. On the bottom of the rug are explosions in red within the map of Afghanistan and it has been flipped over and reversed. There is the imagery of a turning of the earth as a psychological expression by civilian victims of bombing, stunned and terrified from their ground level view. There is writing in Dari (the local language) in several places on the rug. The outer border has repetitive images of a scorpion and the sun missing one of its rays. Symbolically this relates to the juxtaposition of the forces of darkness (the scorpion is a creature of death and darkness) and of the rising sun that stands for light and the renewal of life. (Here is the Fire Bird the Phoenix bird - and the Sting of Scorpion - Red Star Heart of Scorpio Rising? Saba note) Within the rug are aggressive birds (the open beaks seem to thrust out a weapon) that represent the phoenix (a bird that arises with new life out of conflict). The birds depicted are not the more traditional birds of paradise, but appear more like something out of a nightmare. Destruction and dark chaos and the renewal of light and life are represented here in dynamic fashion. The flipped map and the border of scorpion and sun are unique elements that have not appeared in oriental rugs. A frantic message seems to come from the soul of the weaver. This rug was not an item meant to sell for export unlike most war aksi that feature a catalogue of weaponry, scattered about and without a story. The second example is probably also Belouch and features war machines moving on an "S" shaped road in an urban area. This part of the design is not unique. A similar example (Allane, 1996) has been identified as a Herat Belouch. However, it has none of the dynamism as seen in this rug. Again in this rug, there is a shift of scene as the eye scans the carpet from bottom to top. In the bottom of the rug, the road winds in front of and behind a mosque that has a dark blue containing 17 stars. Some of the armored vehicles show the flash of firing weapons. In the middle portion of the carpet, there are images of the sun rising above a hill and there are birds to announce the first light of day. Some of the armored vehicles continue to fire their front cannons. In the top portion, the armor and troop carriers have left the city streets and are replaced by helicopters and jet planes. -s(Saba Note - here is symbolism of the rising sun and sun birds) There are several indications that this rug is from the Herat area. Its construction features an asymmetric knot, left open, suggesting that it was woven within Afghanistan. The armored vehicles were used extensively in the flat open country surrounding the city. The castle-like structure at the top of the carpet closely resembles the Pai Hesar, an ancient citadel that is a symbol of the city of Herat. The large military jets might have come from the Soviet air base at Shindand located about 65 miles away. I agree with Ron O'Callaghan (personal communication) that this sequence of images possibly represent the final retreat of Soviet military from the city, and that it was a long battle lasting many hours. This would not have been an exit marked by anything but hatred on the part of the local populace. In a spontaneous uprising even before the War began, the Afghan garrison in the city had been attacked, and as many as 100 Soviet citizens (Russian advisors, and their families) had been killed (Bradsher, 1985). The Soviet reprisal attacks and later military occupation were particularly brutal, stimulating an exodus of as many as 2 million refugees from Western Afghanistan into Eastern Iran. As the anniversary of the beginning of the Afghan-Soviet War approaches, perhaps we can see echoes of these tragic events in these unique Afghan carpets. References - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Related Links : The Texture of Time By Tom Cole (Oct-Dec 1998) RugReview.com (Outside Link) Copyright © 1999 Aftaabzad Publications. All Rights Reserved. May not be duplicated or distributed in any form without permission.
http://www.afghanmagazine.com/oct99/visualarts/askiwarrugs/
