
Prophet Motif 1994
weaver Iraz Akdeniz, wool kilim, 210 X 150 cm, Konya, Turkey
After 1979 the Afghan tourist invasion had given way to an even more destructive military one: undeterred, the rug-makers accommodated their new market, the Soviet troops and produced designs incorporating tanks, Kalashnikovs, Mig 27s and hand grenades, in place of traditional abstractions of camels, trees, birds and clouds.
If modern kilims have a flaw it is a tiredness of design, most being reproductions of antique examples, lacking the spark that comes from taking risks which distinguishes art from craft. The Afghani kilims overcame this: the paradoxical clash of the old, manual, creative traditions and materials, with the subject of high technology aimed at destruction, was intriguing. A profound humanism operated: the pattern of terror and devastation was reduced to a warm soft pattern in wool. This taming of violence (the rugs were woven by women and children!) betrayed an optimism at the possibility of survival which, for a country living in Apocalypse Now, has universal significance and makes the rugs important as works of art.

A Shadow of A Doubt 1989
weaver Fatma Goban, wool kilim, 210 X 150 cm, Nuzumla, Turkey

Reversal of Fortune 1996
weaver Fatma Basoluk, wool kilim, 210 X 150 cm, Konya, Turkey
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.

Carpet Diem 1992
weaver Hataçe Cavasoglu, wool kilim, 210 X 150 cm, Nuzumla, Turkey

King of the Road 1988
weaver Fatma Goban, wool kilim, 210 X 150 cm, Nuzumla, Turkey

Half Life 2001
weaver Serife Akdenýz, wool kilim, 210 X 150 cm, Konya, Turkey