The War Rug, a strong visualization of opposition; A study on the design of Afghan War Rugs and analyzing a particular case

The works created by human are among the most straightforward features reflecting events, daily life, and the artist’s conceptions. These works give the opportunity to understand the inner thoughts and attitudes of their creators, as a reflection of their either conscious or unconscious impressions. Sometimes, the essential role of these works in the daily life of their creators gives them an important place which goes beyond their materiality as an object. The rug is one of the best sources for research studies to recognize and identification of the creative works regarding typology, relationship, and imaginary life of its creators. In particular, the rugs with improvised design are the best examples for such studies. Although, several studies covered subjects like design and motifs of the traditional rugs, however, there are still more subjects to be considered in researches, such as psychology, and anthropological analysis of the motifs regarding graphic design and concepts in accordance with other types of visual arts. In a specific case in Afghanistan region that people’s life was fully affected by social actions, the design and motifs of rugs considerably changed in a way that a new type of rugs appeared, which was later identified as the “War Rug”.
From the early times in the history, human has been trying to demonstrate the war in his works, and in most of the time, the frustration of the war has been the subject for those works, with the aim to stop or change its results. In the other word, reaction to the natural objects with a demonstration of the beauty and ugliness (Naghani, 1393 [2014] p: 22). The rugs created by the local people in Afghanistan is one of the examples of such interpretations of the feelings of hatred about the war, which includes the element of war as a frustrating matter.
The question of this research that focuses on the possibility of the identification and analytical research in such kind of works is that how did the local weavers and manufacturers of traditional rugs could achieve to these kinds of designs without having any education in art? And if is it possible to reidentify and categorize these works? While the design of traditional rugs is generally imaginary and repetitive, the new motifs which gradually appeared in these rugs and stays ways far from the traditional motifs, reveal a dark truth about these people’s life. This probably can be explained in two ways: remembering the sufferings and shouting out in opposition or accepting the wound and giving up with treatment.
Research In the determination of the theme of the current research with considering its specific subject, a descriptive-analytical system was selected in a library and field research method. The recognition of the subject of traditional rugs and their cultural aspects was based on previous researches and examined methods; this means that analysis of the rug’s design and weaving were based on the previous studies, which was adopted for the study on the effects of war in the rug design. Then to achieve a better result, several pieces of rugs which hold the subject of war were studied. Finally, those samples that could be categorized were selected and analyzed. The study that was based on visual arts and their aspects, continued in the same path to empower analysis in this new view of point. This new method helps to improve the situation of the traditional rug from a functional object to an artistic element as a rich cultural resource.
There could be different reasons in the human cultural life to select a particular design subject for a rug. Scholars believe that part of this process is affected by natural factors, either to protect a natural phenomenon or to illustrate the nature’s power and the human inclination. Some of the motifs are symbolic, which generally come from an abstract idea or imaginary factors. (Coomaraswamy, 1977 p:47)
The important issue is that in all the mentioned works, abstraction, simplifying, and stylization of the form of an object remains the core concept. The shapes, objects, and creatures are simplified by the weaver before they become a part of the design of a rug, a carpet, a kilim or any other type of the weaving products. Even if the majority of the weavers and manufacturers of such kind of products are rural or nomad people. As it is known, the design of the weaving products has been based on the traditional and ancient motifs, which was combined from the nomad and tribal cultures, and/or their Yaylak (the summer pasture place) and Kishlak (the wintery place) places, and had a simplified aesthetic character without a need to the predesigned motifs (Parham, 1372 [1993] p:40). However, this should be notified that the visual learning process from nature and the surrounding is undeniable in these works. Indeed, despite the absence of the academic education, which blames the local weavers for the lack of understanding the concept of their works, in most of the cases, they showed a deep relationship and understanding of such works.
Handicrafts are representatives of the needs and willingness of the people who have created them overtime. This will be very simpleminded if the creators of such things are considered as people who cannot express themselves or communicate with their audiences consciously. Even if the audiences are people from the same society and the same level of education or if they belong to an upper level of educational, cultural, tribal, language and geographical society. What should be noticed is that the artistic communication occurs at any level, to express the inner thoughts and inclinations of its creators.
Everyone would agree that with no doubt the visual knowledge is fundamental for visual arts and it should be approachable on both sides of this equation. At one side is the creator that uses his knowledge to share his thoughts and the concepts with the audience. And on the other side, is the audience and the user who his ability to understand the concept of those works is important. The historical studies show that rug is one of those traditional products that has always carried a balanced relationship regarding the time, the place, and the concept. This means that messages and thoughts that were transferred to the audiences through the familiar motifs used in the rug were fully understood by their users. Consequently, there was a fully functional and accurate system of media; visualization, performance, and effectiveness.
The Afghan War Rug is a complete example of the described system. The locals reflect their desire and sufferings in their products of rug. They used the visual language in the same way that it has been used in the cultural life of human over the time, to demonstrate their hatred and interests through the rug. Indeed, they show their protests against the war through their visualization of it. It should be mentioned that this study showed that these products could be categorized as authentic and non-authentic works.
In this research, several samples of war rugs were studied. The study showed that in general the war rugs could be divided into four categories: I. The first group is the rugs with no authenticity. The only reason that these rugs are considered as war rugs is the use of war images, such as airplane, tank, and guns, in these products.
II. The second group mostly include the illustration of people or subjects related to the war. For instance, the portraits of Ahmad Shah Massoud, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, Amanullah Khan, or issues like the entrance of Russia military to Afghanistan and also their exit, the 9/11 attack, and post 9/11 events. These group of rugs also belong to the non-authentic group.
III. The third is the rugs, which were produced based on the traditional methods and used the same color system, but the motifs are all demonstration of military facilities. This group of rugs became popular when the war was extended over the country.
IV. The last group of war rugs is the most authentic ones. These types of rugs include all the traditional motifs and follow the same pattern. They only use a few elements about the war in their design. This group contains the earliest examples of Afghan War Rug.
The first and second group do not pose any kind of traditional rug values; as the majority of them has been produced outside of Afghanistan, due to the popularity of this kind of rugs, especially for tourists. The third group, in terms of the design, motifs, color and weaving methods are authentic. However, they are more recent in comparison with the fourth group which includes the oldest and most authentic war rugs of their type.