Kilims

Rish felt own work has always  dealt with destructive  technology – cars, televisions, toasters, the media – if on  a more  suburban level. The tank kilims  suggested  infinite possibilities and so he commenced designing. With  Afghanistan  out  of the question he opted for Konya,  Turkey  the centre  of  Seljuk architecture, Whirling  Dervishes,  and kilim making. The kilims are made of  handspun,  natural dyed wool  with  up to five pieces being  made  from  one design. They are mainly made in the village of Nuzumlar by Fatma Goban and Hataçe Çavusoglu,  however,  many people are involved in dye collecting, dye  making, wool spinning etc.

Stylistically the kilims have developed as a hybrid of West  Coast Funk and Neo-expressionism, deploying  a  penchant  for  visual puns and literary subject  matter.  The kilims, like King Of The Road, 1988, are populated  with  the  manifestations  of  power  (kings,  crowns, swords).  The co-ordinates of geographic space, the  road and  river,  themselves awaken and wander in  the  nomadic tradition beneath an infinite, indigo sky.

In Prophet Motif  (a play  on  resurgent, Islamic, political ‘motives’) a field of dollar signs,  an adaption  of a traditional, Armenian hook motif used  to ward off the evil eye, is surrounded by a  border of  grasping, envious, green hands. The space between the motifs is occupied by eyes and a Latin inscription “Cadit Quaestio”  (the question falls) questions the above-mentioned political  relations  and the equivalence of art and  money  in consumer society.