Here’s the display in the National Museum of Australia.
Some would argue that the White Australia Policy, officially laid to rest in the 1970s, has emerged again in the racially biased attitudes towards refugees and ethnic profiling in the last two decades. Mahomet Allum ran out of time…
Here is a set of images from three variations on a theme we’re still finding hard to interpret. Some elements are clear: the four-barrel anti-aircraft gun appears like the fingers of a hand in the bootom register. In the center is a tank. At the top is the form I call the “ragged mihrab” which also appears in different contexts in other rugs, discussed at length, with other examples, here. So, from the mihrab form, perhaps this rug can also be categorised as a prayer rug. Noteworthy also is the small element at the bottom right of the rug where an element penetrates the frame and intrudes into the border design. Can any readers shed further light on any of these mysteries?
Readers in the New York area will be interested to know that the exhibition “Weavings of War: Fabrics of Memory” is showing at The Puffin Room, 435 Broome Street, New York, until mid October. The exhibition will tour throughout the US until 2008 – a list of locations can be found by scrolling down here and the excellent catalogue is available online.
Kevin Sudeith (warrug.com) and Curator Ariel Zeitlin Cooke in the exhibition.
Ariel writes:
the exhibition features a dazzling display of war textiles–Afghan war rugs, Hmong story cloths, Chilean and Peruvian arpilleras and South African memory cloths, all of which bear witness to the artists’ experience of modern warfare. This is a wonderful moment for me, as I have worked on the project for more than 15 years.
The exhibition has been reviewed in the online version of Hali magazine.
There are some photographs from the exhibition opening with distinguished guest Hmong story cloth artist Pang Xiong Sirirasathuk Sikounat at Kevin Sudeith’s warrug.com blog.
One of the most striking war rugs (among many of interest) was the prayer rug from the collection of Bruce Baganz. You can find other images of the exhibition pieces on Kevin’s blog…
