War Rugs: Woven Documents of Conflict and Hope Author(S): WILLIAM CHARLAND Source: Art Education, Vol

National Art Education Association

War Rugs: Woven Documents of Conflict and Hope Author(s): WILLIAM CHARLAND Source: Art Education, Vol. 64, No. 6 (November 2011), pp. 25-32 Published by: National Art Education Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41480626 Accessed: 01-03-2017 19:49 UTC

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This content downloaded from 146.86.206.174 on Wed, 01 Mar 2017 19:49:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Instructional Resources

War Rugs: Woven Documents of Conflict and Hope

WILLIAM CHARLAND

Recommended for Grades 6-12

Figure 1. Subtle martial imagery (Baluch style). Collection of author. I Photo: W.Charland.

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This content downloaded from 146.86.206.174 on Wed, 01 Mar 2017 19:49:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Exposed world, andworld,Exposed conflict many many and students to imagesconflict aroundunder- aroundstudents of the violence understand such struggles only through brief news clips and sound bites. By providing an introduction to the history, design, and production of War Rugs: An Introduction Afghan war rugs, this Instructional War rugs (see Figures 1 and 2) are hand-made The Socio-Political Context Resource is intended to help woven commodities produced in the rural of Afghan War Rugs students pause and consider the villages and urban workshops of Afghanistan, The invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet context within which individuals as well as crowded refugee camps in Iran and Union in 1979 followed internal unrest turn to ages-old cultural practices Pakistan. Graphic and visually striking, war in the Afghan government (Maley, 2009). rugs are marketed globally, available on the to maintain a sense of continuity Afghanistan's communist party, upon seizing street corners of New York and other major control in 1978, turned to the Soviet Union as war indelibly alters the world cities, and in the virtual markets of eBay for support, alienating large portions of the around them. These pedagogical and other online sites. War rugs are afforded country's traditional Islamic population. strategies are intended for middle- exhibition space in museums and galleries An Islamic insurgency formed to drive the school and high-school students across the United States and Europe, and communists from power. Fearing the loss of who have achieved a certain discussed in scholarly books, journals, and influence in the region, Soviet leaders quickly museum publications (Allen, 2011; Cooke & level of intellectual and affective overthrew the Afghan government and MacDowell, 2005; Kuryluk, 1989; Mascelloni, replaced it with a more reliable subordinate maturity. 2009). They range in quality from tightly government (Kakar, 1995), simultaneously knotted intricate works of subtle coloration Learning objectives include: flooding Afghanistan with troops to quash and meticulous craftsmanship to simpler, the determined resistance efforts of Afghan • Analyzing and interpreting war rugs; roughly constructed works dashed off for Muslim groups. quick sale. • Exploring the subjectivity of seeing, However, "the resistance to the Soviet interpreting, and evaluating; War Textiles invasion was nationwide" (Kakar, 1995, • Recognizing constancy and change p.79). Afghanistan's 250,000 square miles War is a defining activity in the history of in cultural expression; of topographical contrasts made modern societies, and thus provides a key theme • Examining gender roles and the warfare difficult for the invaders. While for artists and writers through the ages. In reconfiguration of gender expectations; Soviet vehicles ground down in sand and Homer s Iliad, Helen of Troy is described dust, Afghan resistance fighters struck with • Investigating related work by weaving "the story of the war" (Pantelia, hit-and-run skirmishes, and found refuge in contemporary artists; and 1993, p.495) between the Trojans and the rugged mountains and valleys. The weaponry • Exploring the role of creativity as a Achaeans. The war ships and battlefields, employed by both sides - automatic rifles, universal coping mechanism. hails of arrows and crowds of warriors, the rocket-propelled grenade launchers, missiles, supine dead and dying that constitute the fighter planes, helicopters, tanks, and Bayeux Tapestry , probably commissioned in personnel carriers - are depicted in war rugs the 1070s, speak of the Norman conquest of (see Figures 1 and 2). During the conflict, England in the Middle Ages (Lewis, 1999). more than 5 million Afghans fled their Textiles with war themes generally occur "in homeland, most of these to the relative safety societies where the production of cloth is of surrounding nations (Maley, 2009). already a pervasive medium of deep cultural significance" (Cooke, 2005a, p. 9), and are The Taliban, a militant fundamentalist group, nearly always created by women. In addition moved to assume control of Afghanistan. to Afghan war rugs, examples of textiles that Soon after the September 11, 2001, attacks document conflict are found among Hmong on New York City and Washington, DC, the US demanded the Taliban turn over leaders story cloths, Asafo flags, Haitian hunger cloths, Chilean arpilleras, Kuna molas, and of the group claiming responsibility for these other artworks depicting the modern world attacks (al-Qaeda), who were believed to be through a prism of traditional culture. seeking refuge in Afghanistan. The Taliban refused, and the US (with British support) commenced bombing Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan, eventually handing over command of the military security forces to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 2003.

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Figure 2. Red rug, obvious imagery (Turkman style). Collection of author. Photo: W. Charland.

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This content downloaded from 146.86.206.174 on Wed, 01 Mar 2017 19:49:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Figure 3. Traditional boteh form (left) as basis for grenade images. Photo: W. Charland.

Although Afghanistan has witnessed figurative representation (Mascelloni, the approval of a new constitution, the 2009) and narrative content. Images range seating of the first democratically elected from flattened, highly geometricized, and leader, and the training of a national army, abstracted forms (see Figure 1), to simpli- conflict continues. The civilian population fied but recognizable representations (see of Afghanistan continues to suffer hard- Figure 2), as well as pictures and maps ships and casualties, while many millions detailed enough to distinguish specific wait out the war in refugee camps (British battles, individuals, and weapons (Cooke, Broadcasting Corporation, 2009; Public 2005b, p. 59). Broadcasting Service, 2008). As the technique of weaving is built upon impressions with later an xly axis of vertical warp and horizontal Cultural Adaptations weft threads, certain shapes are more easily lowîwledge^stuëeiîfe War rugs are created by "survivor- artists. . . created than others. Straight lines are more driven by the twin needs of subsistence and readily woven than curves, and the edges of come to understand how self-expression" (Cooke, 2005a, p. 24). Rug diagonal lines and circles appear stepped, weavers from Baluch, Turkmen, and Hazara much as they do in a magnification of pixels interpretations of art tribes (Cooke, 2005a) fled to refugee camps in a digital image. This repertoire of simpli- in Iran and Pakistan. There they shared fied and geometricized forms allows artists can develop and grow. experiences, skills, and visual motifs, thus to adapt existing motifs to new purposes synthesizing distinct tribal styles (Hawley, by applying a few simple changes. Thus a 1970) into a new, broader Afghani aesthetic. boteh form (known in the West as a paisley) Deprived of traditional means of earning a becomes a hand grenade (see Figure 3). living, men resorted to weaving, an expres- A row of decorative diamonds in a göl, a sive and economic venue previously the prominent Turkmen ornament, shifts into domain of women (Mascelloni, 2009). the tread of a tank (see Figure 4), and stars While the evolution of the war rug is not and flowers are reinterpreted as explosions clearly delineated, modern weapons were (see Figure 2). seen in Afghan rugs produced in the Baluchistan region beginning in the 1930s. Formal Analysis vs. Lived Experience Examples of weaponry as visual motifs that When presenting eye-catching works, a risk appear prior to the Soviet invasion refute exists of inadvertently deemphasizing the the notion that traditional weavers were challenges, setbacks, and triumphs of the simply documenting the war around them. artists' daily lives within war- torn envi- Instead, they replaced the dragons, goats, ronments. No discussion of the conflicts peacocks, and other symbols of prosperity, wracking Afghanistan can capture the pride, and protection with depictions of depth and range of human emotions felt by weaponry and mechanized war in a natural the weavers. Images on the rugs, reducing process of modernization (Mascelloni, killing machines into pleasing patterns of 2009). soft wool, may inure the viewer and lead to facile misinterpretations. We may begin Repurposing Traditional to approach an understanding of the fear, Design Elements grief, bravery, and persistence experi- The composition of war rugs is based enced by Afghan weavers by listening to on axial symmetry, a characteristic of their stories in their own words (Cooke & traditional Afghan rug design, although MacDowell, 2005; ¡Lessing, 1987). some weavers employ Persian-influenced

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Pedagogical Strategies: Research and Discussion

Analyzing and Interpreting War Rugs Paraphrasing comments, the teacher asks The war war evocative rugs capture rugs capturethe attention images of the the depicted attention on of Prior to sharing information with your "What more can we find?", throwing the viewer. The challenge in the classroom is to class, allow students to view and analyze discussion open to another cycle of obser- gradually move past immediate percep- a war rug using the technique of Visual vations and interpretations that build upon tions to explore broader issues. To facilitate Thinking Strategies (VTS).1 Based on previous responses. students' journeys from fascination to research in aesthetic development (Housen, Explain to students how an anthropologist deeper understandings, it is essential that 2002), a VTS session begins with a moment or art historian might initially approach an students are provided with open-ended of quiet observation of a work of art, item of material culture in a similar way. study that contextualizes war rugs and followed by the teacher asking, "What's Asking these types of questions provide explores the art, the artists, and the culture going on in this picture?" From that point researchers with frameworks for subse- of Afghanistan. The following strategies on, students do most of the talking, while quent exploration, revealing information guide students from subjective to increas- the teacher's role is that of non-judgmental that leads to new understandings. ingly objective understandings. facilitator. The teacher follows a student's observation with the query "What do you Exploring Variability in Seeing, see that makes you say that?", prompting Interpreting, and Evaluating students to provide reasons and support. To demonstrate how one's understanding of a work of art can change over time, ask students to write about a war rug at the beginning of a unit, and again at its conclusion. By comparing early impressions with later knowledge, students come to understand how interpretations of art can develop and grow. The three VTS questions illustrated earlier are particularly effective as prompts for student writing exercises. To illustrate how the meaning of a work of art can vary among viewers, share and discuss excerpts from literature on seeing (Berger, 1972; Wolcott, 2008), understanding (Belenky, 1986), and valuing works of art (Karp & Lavine, 1991). Ask students about instances when their own artwork was misinterpreted by peers, teachers, or parents/guardians. As a creative applica- tion, ask students to role-play. How might a female weaver, a male weaver, a rug merchant, a collector, or a museum curator describe her/his relationship with a war rug?

Comparing Constancy and Transition in Cultural Expression Have students list differences between their generation's styles and language, and those of their parents/guardians. Share and discuss these differences, working to determine how generational styles occur. Next, view an image of a decorative or utilitarian (non-war) Afghan rug beside an image of a war rug2 such as that shown in Figure 1. Ask students to find motifs and forms common to both, and identify elements possibly originating in traditional rug design.

Figure 4. Tank treads (top) derived from traditional göl form. Photo: W. Charland.

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This content downloaded from 146.86.206.174 on Wed, 01 Mar 2017 19:49:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Figures. Chicago artist Barbara Koenen creating war rug installation. Photo courtesy of artist.

Investigating Gender, the Arts, collections. These facts may help explain the and Contextual Change male stereotype of an artist. Have students close their eyes and picture a The story of the artists who create war rugs Through strategies designed typical artist at work, and then quickly write exemplifies how environmental change can a description of the artist. Sharing descrip- revalue or reconfigure gender expectations. to expose students to the tions, note how often the artist is imagined Just as men began knotting rugs in Afghan as male, and how often as female. In many refugee camps, women in the US assumed persistence of art in even classrooms, this exercise reveals a stereotype, positions in business and manufacturing a bias toward thinking of an artist as male. previously dominated by men during World the most challenging Ask students why this gender expectation War II. In both cases, social events- the occurs. existential threat of war- allowed deeply situations, we help them Ask students to draw a circle and ingraineddivide it understandings of gender roles into a simple two-portion pie chart, and writingexpectations to become suspended or transformed. see the world through in one portion the percentage of males artists and in the other portion the percentage of another's perspective, and female artists they think currently Making work Relevant in the United States. The sum of Contemporarythe two Connections facilitate their development percentages should add up to 100%. If at allDo possible,their arrange a visit to your pie charts match the results of the school artist- by an Afghan artist to relate first-hand as learners, artists, and stereotype exercise? Reveal statistics knowledge from about their homeland, life, and modes of visual expression. Lacking this informed citizens. the recent census, which shows that slightly more than half (52.4 %) of professional resource, have students explore the work artists and designers in the US areof contemporarywomen Afghani artists3 online. (U.S. Department of Labor, 2010). For You example, may an interview with Lida Abdul, want to follow this with data published whose videos and performances deal with by the Guerrilla Girls (1995) quantifying issues and images similar to those in war gender inequities in museum exhibitions rugs, is available and courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art.4

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Figure 6. Margi Weir. Child's Play, 2007. Digital inkjet print on rag paper. 1 2"x 1 8". Photo: M. Weir.

A number of US artists create works that Tech, the tapestry-like motif and juxtaposi- Conclusion pay tribute to war rugs. Barbara Koenen,5 tion of mundane and violent iconography We teach art for many reasons, not the least a Chicago artist and activist, creates tempo- recalls elements of the war rugs, and repre- of which is to broaden students' under- rary installations and prints based on war sents "the idea of children shooting children standing of, and empathy toward, the human rugs (see Figure 5). To create her fragrant in a civilization overflowing with guns" (M. condition in its diverse forms. This instruc- "rugs," she sifts powdered spices and seeds Weir, in personal correspondence with the tional resource employs images of weapons through templates, delineating the edges with author, February 2, 201 1). Ask students to and conflict, which are often censored from fringes and firecrackers. To document these consider why an image such as Childs Play the art curriculum, as a basis for cognitive, ephemeral works, Koenen lays prepared may be acceptable in an art gallery, but aesthetic, and affective growth. Through paper over the installation and gently lifts perhaps not in the hallway of a school. strategies designed to expose students to the it off, adhering the powdered materials to persistence of art in even the most chal- the paper s surface. Several "monoprints" Assessment lenging situations, we help them see the are pulled from a single installation, each These pedagogical strategies focus on under- world through another's perspective, and successive state appearing increasingly faint standing and appreciating war rugs, the facilitate their development as learners, and fragile. motivations of the artists who create them, artists, and informed citizens. There is a formal connection to war-rug and the context in which they are created. imagery in Margi Weir s print Childs Play They call for authentic assessment methods (2007), showing children engaged in play- to measure students' ability to describe, William Charland is Assistant Professor of ground activity (see Figure 6). Weir designs define, and reflect. Whether assessing the Art/ Art Education at the Frostic School of digital compositions of appealing patterns whole group, a small group, or individual Art at Western Michigan University. that, upon careful viewing, reveal darker students, teachers can track learning by E-mail : [email protected] underlying messages. The frolicking figures looking at levels of engagement, participa- in this print are circumscribed by a border tion in discussions and exercises, clarity of handguns, while the ghostly image of a of thought and expression, the ability to young person pointing two guns, paramili- arrive at novel insights, and the capacity to tary style, looms in the center. Inspired by empathize. the massacres at Columbine and Virginia

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This content downloaded from 146.86.206.174 on Wed, 01 Mar 2017 19:49:08 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms REFERENCES

Allen, M. (2011). Battleground: War Cooke, A., & MacDowell, M. (Eds.). Maley, W (2009). The Afghanistan rugs from Afghanistan. Textile (2005). Weavings of war: Fabrics wars. (2nd Ed.). Basingstoke, UK: Museum of Canada. Retrieved of memory. East Lansing, MI: Palgrave Macmillan. from www.textilemuseum.ca/ Michigan State University Mascelloni, E. (2009). War rugs: The Museum Press. apps/ index.cfm?page=exhibition. nightmare of modernism. Milan, detail&exhld=27 1 Guerrilla Girls. (1995). Confessions of Italy: Skira. Belenky, M. (1986). Women's ways of the Guerrilla Girls. New York, NY: Pantelia, M. (1993). Spinning and knowing: The development of self Harper Perennial. weaving: Ideas of domestic order voice and mind. New York, NY: Hawley, W. (1970). Oriental rugs; in Homer. The American Journal of Basic Books. Antique and modern. New York, Philology, 114(4), 493-501. NY: Dover Publications. Berger, J. (1972). Ways of seeing. Public Broadcasting Service. (2008, London, UK: British Broadcasting Housen, A. (2002). Aesthetic thought, July 18). Timeline: War in Corporation. critical thinking, and transfer. Afghanistan. PBS Now. Retrieved British Broadcasting Corporation. Arts and Learning Journal iS(l), from www.pbs.org/now/shows/ (2009, February 17). Timeline: 99-132. 428/ afghanistan-timeline.html Soviet war in Afghanistan. BBC Kakar, M. (1995). Afghanistan: The U.S. Department of Labor. (2010). CPS News. Retrieved from http:// Soviet invasion and the Afghan Table 11. Employed persons by news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_ response, 1978-1982. Berkeley, CA: detailed occupation, sex, race, and asia/7883532.stm University of California Press. Hispanic or Latino ethnicity. Labor Cooke, A. (2005a). Common threads: Karp, I., Lavine, S., & Rockefeller Force Statistics from the Current The creation of war textiles around Foundation. (1991). Exhibiting Population Survey, 2010. Bureau of the world. In A. Cooke and M. cultures: The poetics and politics of Labor Statistics. Washington, DC. MacDowell (Eds.), Weavings of museum display. Washington, DC: Retrieved from www.bls.gov/cps/ war: Fabrics of memory (pp. 3-29). Smithsonian Institution Press. cpsaatll.pdf East Lansing, MI: Michigan State Kuryluk, E. (1989). The Afghan war Wolcott, H. (2008). Ethnography: University Museum Press. rugs. Arts Magazine: New York , A way of seeing. Lanham, MD: Cooke, A. (2005b). Michgan and 63(6), 72-74. AltaMira Press. Merza Hozain, Hazara weavers. Lessing, D. (1987). The wind blows In A. Cooke and M. MacDowell away our words : A firsthand (Eds.), Weavings of war: Fabrics of account of the Afghan resistance. memory (pp. 59-62). East Lansing, New York, NY: Random House. MI: Michigan State University Museum Press. Lewis, S. (1999). The rhetoric of power in the Bayeux Tapestry. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

ENDNOTES

1 For additional information visit www.vtshome. 3 See the Center for Contemporary Arts org/ Afghanistan at: www.ccaa.org.af/?p=39

2 See DeWitt Mallary Antique Rug and Textile 4 The interview is available through the online Art at www.antiqueweavings.com/Detail%20 video source Art Babble at www.artbabble.org/ Pages/Baluch%20Salar%20Khani%20Bagface. video/ima/lida-abdul-factory html. See also the Textile Museum of Canada 5 See www.barbarakoenen.com. at www.textilemuseum.ca/apps/index. cfm?page=collection.browseExh&exhId=271

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