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Cry Havoc

(and let loose the rugs of war)

What if you cried out and no would listen. What if you called for help and the people said you didn't really mean it. Here in this country we have seen the paintings of the survivors of the German Death Camps or the art of abused children who can not verbalize the horrors of their life. Perhaps framed in this milieu you will realize that that in it's purest form the War rug is more than a trinket made for tourists. The true War Rug is a cry of expression from those who have no other voice. Will anyone listen? Will anyone care?

I will grant that many and no doubt most of the War Rugs are not true War Rugs and are made for profit by refugees. But how then do we tell. The key is authenticity what the weaver sees the weaver weaves. If we see things that can only come from Pakistan or Iran than we know those things are the expression of someone reacting to the camp not to the war. But when we see what can only come from the war zone then we know the weaver is speaking from her heart.

Yellow Rain

In the Vietnam War and in the Afghan war, villagers from remote areas told of the yellow rain. Yellow rain is an anaerobic toxin, that is initially yellow and then turns to white powder. Yellow rain is harmless by the second day and can not be traced so even though we know it exists and that it was in Soviet arsenals from the late 1960's on, proving it was used is almost impossible. If you were a Moslem woman who survived a Chemical and Biological weapons attack how would you tell the world. Calling a press conference is not an option, you could write a book, but that would mean learning to read and write. Maybe you would just weave a rug.

1. Chahar Aymaq Taimani Pictograph (Baluch type)

Property of Bruce Baganz

Pictographic representation of a battle. The main border is a convoy of Soviet BDMs (armored personnel carriers) with ATGM missiles on the gun barrels. The block on the turret is the head and helmet of a crew member. The main field convoy includes Soviet mobile SSMs probably the SS-21. The SS-21 is an awkward weapon to use against guerrilla forces in its conventional mode, however the SS-21 was one of the main Soviet delivery systems for chemical weapons and the BDM escort is designed to provide protection during a chemical attack.

The Chahar Aymaq rug pictured above is a surprisingly accurate depiction of a Soviet Chemical Weapons unit. A unit that we know was stationed at Kandahar during the War years and that we know operated in the area of the Chahar Aymaq. We know that this equipment was with the 70th Motorized rifle brigade at Kandahar and that we know the 70th was trained in Chemical and Biological warfare. What we do not know is that they used the unit. Obviously this woman knew and if we ignore her cry than her expression at the death of her kin was in vain.

Death From Above

Detail Cicaktu Rug

This is a larger rug with a double row Herati pattern. It has a non-western view of jets used as tertiary design elements along the side of the Herati pattern in the main field.

Not every rug is so easy to understand. I was rug shopping on King Street in Alexandria Va. when I spotted a Cicaktu rug with a very unusual design. The look was Cicaktu. It had that precise back, the definitive handle, the distinctive selvage, and the wool all said Cicaktu but what was the small machine flanked by the lancet leaves in the Herati design? My thoughts ranged over the gamete of APC's, anti-aircraft guns, helicopters and jets, but I could not explain the image. Then by happenstance I had the experience of a small jet streaking over head just short of stall speed, about the speed used for an anti-personal strafing run. And I looked up and I saw in it the image from the rug and I knew this was the image of a jet as seen by a woman being strafed. Again a solitary woman who must cry out to express what she alone can understand. To ignore this artistic statement is to silence the voice of the survivors. At least one who survived long long enough to weave this rug.

War in the Mountain Passes

8. Uzbek War Runner

The design is an off white field with 2 rifles, 2 camels, 4 tanks and 4 helicopters. The field is surrounded by a blue rat's tooth border. The pieces in the field are widely spaced giving an uncluttered appearance. What I originally called tanks are more likely to be self propelled cannons. I discussed this with a top defense analyst who had been with the Mujaheddin in Afghanistan and he suggested that they were likely to be Soviet ZS3 or ZS4 self propelled cannons. He remarked that these were used as convoy escorts because they could fire up into the steep mountains. After examination I conclude that they are ZS3s. The rifles are Kalishnikov AK 47s . On reflection I have decided that the attribution of the rifles is more properly the Kalikov AK 74.

Here we have a very special rug. The border and the Camel are traditional but the rifle and the tank like images are special. The rifle is an AK-74 not the more common AK-47. The Kalikov was only issued to Russian troops not Afghan Government troops or Tribal militia. As such it was a rebels weapon because the only way they could get the Kalikov was from dead or surrendering Soviet troops. But more unusual is the tank like image. It isn't a tank or an APC (Armored Personal Carrier) it is a Soviet 2S3 self-propelled howitzer. Needless to say 2S3s never show up in the refugee camp production. That's because they were not used to any great extent in the Afghan theater except as convoy escorts on the long road leading south to the Salang pass.

Does The Paint Make it Art?

To say that War Rugs are not art is like suggesting that Picaso's Guernica is not art.

In 1937, a huge air raid on the Basque town of Guernica in Northern Spain stunned the world. Among the casualties were hundreds of civilians. For many this was the defining moment of the war. A man named Pablo Picaso reacted to this raid in a painting. His meaning so powerful it is called his greatest work but so obscured in imagery that a vast number of books have attempted to explain and define it.

Guernica is not Antique.

Guernica does not use vegetal colors.

Guernica is not a pleasant expression of the traditional folk heritage.

Yet Guernica is art.

Can anyone then say that Afghan War Rugs can not be art?