'Weavings of War: Fabrics of Memory' is an exhibition of over fifty woven textiles, comprising a selection of appliquéd and embroidered rugs, hangings, household items and articles of clothing. The collection is created by women refugee artists, and finds an appropriate venue in The Puffin Room, New York, with its ethos of providing a platform for expression to those who are often excluded from the mainstream.
'Weavings of War' is not a specific reaction to any one war or political stance. Instead, it reflects the way in which individuals and different cultures experience and survive conflict per se, through the medium of folk and contemporary textile art. The collection spans work of the very highest quality through to coarse rugs sold in street markets around the world. All depict modern day tools of destruction, massacres and other atrocities, many doing so with such intricacy that weapons experts are able to recognise the exact make and model of machines pictured.
Sometimes a traditional pattern is transformed to produce a new image, as can be seen in Afghan war rugs, where the boteh - a common pattern found in Oriental carpets- is represented in the form of hand grenades.
The exhibits include a South African embroidered wall hanging that depicts a man being 'necklaced' (2). This was a form of punishment common during the break up of apartheid, in which tyres were placed around the necks of suspected collaborators and set alight. Another feature of the collection is a Chilean hand-appliquéd arpillera (appliqué tapestry) that represents the 'Mothers of the Disappeared' who chained themselves to the railings of the National Congress building in Santiago. Accompanying the work are many rare photographs, quotations and biographies. These all serve to cast light on the little known figures of the artists.
Weavings of War: Fabrics of Memory
The Puffin Room
435 Broome St
SoHo between Broadway and Crosby
NY 10013
www.puffinroom.org
Saturday 9th September – Sunday 15th October 15, 2006
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