A Magic Carpet Ride
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday August 25, 1999
The arts and crafts of Central Asia - including dazzling silks and colourful embroideries, carpets and animal trappings - will be receiving unprecedented attention in Sydney this weekend, with at least five exhibitions and a major seminar all focusing on the theme of Central Asian textiles.
An inhospitable region of mountains, deserts and steppes to the north of Iran and India, Central Asia is the source of an array of textiles that have drawn a devoted following of collectors in Australia and the West.
Until the late 19th century, when Central Asia was bloodily annexed by Russia, its oasis towns such as Bokhara and Khiva were staging posts for caravans on the Old Silk Road from China to the West.
The break-up of the Soviet Union has seen the area re-emerge as independent nations such as Uzbekistan, Turkmenia and Tajikistan.
It has long been a melting pot for races including Uzbeks, nomadic Turkmen, Kirghiz, Tajiks and Kurds, among others - which helps explain the artistic diversity of its textiles.
At the centre of this weekend's celebration of Central Asian art is the Powerhouse Museum, which on Sunday hosts an important seminar titled Silken Steppes: Textile Arts of Central Asia.
This will coincide with the opening of an exhibition on the arts of the region titled Beyond the Silk Road, which will showcase some of the gems normally hidden away in the Powerhouse's vaults. The exhibition continues until July 2000.
The seminar is a joint presentation by the Asian Arts Society of Australia and the Oriental Rug Society of NSW (inquiries phone 9319 4300) and includes keynote speakers from overseas as well as several eminent local authorities.
Among them are two prominent UK experts - the rug and textile collector and author George O' Bannon and embroideries specialist and curator Sheila Paine.
Christina Sumner, the Powerhouse's curator of decorative arts and design and a key figure in organising the major events, will also be a speaker.
Meanwhile Nomadic Rug Traders in Sydney's Pyrmont will offer part of its gallery area for an exhibition of privately owned Central Asian costume and textiles, as well as putting together an exhibition of its own, Bokhara and Beyond, which will offer Central Asian carpets and textiles for sale.
Bokhara and Beyond will include an outstanding Tekke Turkmen main carpet dating from the mid-19th century and a number of suzanis or coverlets embroidered in silk with bold archaic motifs.
Cito Cessna, who will address the seminar on classical Turkmen weaving, will have a special showing titled Turkmen Rugs and Textiles at his Parkham Place Gallery in Surry Hills. Ian Perryman, of Queen Street, Woollahra, will also show Central Asian rugs and textiles.
For many collectors, a passion for Central Asian art began with the carpets and rugs of the Turkmen, nomadic sheep and goat herders whose wives and daughters knotted fine carpets featuring rows of intricate octagons or lozenges, known as guls, arranged on what is usually a red background. The guls are totemic symbols of the various Turkmen tribes in ancient times.
While Turkmen carpets have been collected in the West for more than 100 years, they became highly fashionable in the 1970s when prices soared and numerous scholarly books were published on various aspects of what became known as "Turkmania".
Ross Langlands of Nomadic Rug Traders says the dissolving of the old Soviet Union brought much previously unseen material onto the market and sparked a reappraisal of Central Asian textiles. This was after occupants of formerly closed States combed attics and trunks for heirlooms that would fetch a good price in the bazaars of Istanbul.
The flood of "new" material - most of it in fact dating from the late-19th and early 20th centuries - prompted the experts to rethink many of the previously accepted attributions, he says.
For instance, a variety of items including knotted carpets and rugs made of felted wool can now confidently be attributed to people of Uzbek descent - who were previously known for their ikats (brilliant textiles made from tie-dyed silk) and embroidered suzanis - but not for carpets.
"And things previously described as Uzbek or Ersari have now been reascribed to the Kirghiz, Karakulpak or Tajiks," he says.
Christina Sumner says the Powerhouse will exhibit a fine 19th-century suzani and an unusual arch-shaped dowry piece.
Among the carpets is an early Yomut Turkmen with the so-called C-gul motif - one of only a dozen such carpets known worldwide - and a Khotan from East Turkestan. The exhibition includes horse bridles and trappings and even Persian ceramics.
The Powerhouse will show 36 rare chromolithographs from a folio based on drawings by a Russian scientist who went to Central Asia in 1882. These had been acquired by the museum in the 1880s but were "rediscovered" after a major stocktake of the collections.
"It's called Beyond the Silk Road but that's really just a linking theme," Sumner says. "It's mainly about the symbiotic relationship between nomadic and urban people within a Russian context and within the sphere of influence of the surrounding major civilisations."
She has long been a fan of Central Asian art, but believes interest has widened since the Soviet break-up, which prompted her to push the idea of a seminar and related exhibition. "I'd cancel everything if you're interested in that area," she says.
COMING AUCTIONS
Christie's (Melb) rare books, manuscripts.......Aug 30
Wemyss (Perth): watches, fountain pens..........Sept 7
Wemyss: vintage luggage, travel, frames........Sept 11
Lawsons: decorative art, furniture...............Sept 14
Wemyss: colonial furniture.........................Sept 15
Dalia Stanley: furniture, dec' arts, jewellery....Sept 19
Lawsons: Ivan Ban oriental collection......Sept 28, 29
© 1999 Sydney Morning Herald
