9/11 Afghan War Rug

Food for thought for the western image-maker: The earliest war rugs were created on looms in Central Asia by women in villages and refugee camps post-1976 Saur Revolution. Today, these works often narrate 9/11 by flattening the space and machinery–helicopter gunships, occupation maps, AK-47s and tanks–that define this event and the 20 year conflict at large.

Each rug one of one. Through the accumulation of subtle shifts in each replication, symbols uncannily change scale and become decorative, and language morphs overtime:"FLIGHT" > "FL I6T", "MISSILE" > "SRM SLE".

All at once, these works are a testimony to the resilience of the women behind their making and a polarizing commodity to a Western buyer–protest art or tourist souvenir…? The visual story continuously changes through re-authorship and textilic displacement; Dare I say…owning one might be understood as owning a moment in time.