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I flew into Toronto last week to visit a dear friend of mine, and her dear husband too! It was a grand vacation for me—something I don’t do often enough. We saw the beautiful new opera house and heard a lovely concert, took in a couple yarn and fabric shops, saw porcelain in the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, went to the Bata Shoe Museum—a wonderful exhibition on the history of shoes, saw the textile exhibit at the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), ate Greek food, went out to lunch a couple times… Sigh. It was lovely.
Toronto is wonderful: clean, diverse, lively, cultured. How often do we Americans think to look northward to those riches of nature and culture? And those clever Canadians don’t let winter get them down. In Toronto, there are 10 miles of underground walks and shopping for those days when you can’t bear to brave the elements. I was astounded!
Well, the most amazing experience I had while there was at the Textile Museum of Canada. I saw the exhibit Battleground: War Rugs of Afghanistan. So what the heck is a war rug? Already I didn’t think I wanted to see them if it was about war. But I love handwoven rugs, especially those created as a part of a culture’s expression. I am especially drawn to the borders woven in Turkish, Afghani, Peruvian, or… (fill in the blank with any handweaving culture) textiles. The endless variations are inspiring and I keep envisioning sweater designs in which these motifs are incorporated. But I was not prepared to see borders of colorful images of hand grenades, bullets, mortar shells, and tanks. It was so shocking and jarring! Helicopters and fighter jets, Soviet rifles and American weapons are also depicted, including the Butterfly land mine—a small but deadly piece of plastic often mistaken for a toy by children. Afghanistan is the most heavily mined country in the world and the US is one of only a handful of countries that has refused to sign the agreement to abolish land mines forever…
Here is the main link for the War Rugs. From there you can view the whole collection, including detail shots of each piece and a description. Granted, it’s not easy to view, but it gave me a concrete sense of how living in a war-torn country colors every aspect of one’s existence. Although it’s not comfortable or pleasant to look at these images, I believe it is important to continue the dialogue these rugs open up. Also you can contact Afghans for Afghans for more information on how you can help to clothe the children of this devastated country. Thanks. May we each embody peace.
