Not surprisingly, the words “text” and “textile” share the same Latin root word: the verb texere, meaning to weave. Just as sentences are created by stringing words together to create meaning, cultures throughout time have carefully woven strands of wool or silk into designs rich with meaning. Sentences are stitched together to create anything from a sweeping fictional saga to a dry didactic text. Similarly the rugs in the exhibition, RugLife, range from a formal approach to the subject matter to rich cultural critique and are representative of the unique and vastly different cultures and/or identities that the fourteen artists represent. 

Rugs and carpets have defined the character of space since animal skins began to warm and adorn cave dwellings; the earliest known Persian rugs are nearly 2500 years old. Given this long history—entwined with religion, culture, and nature—it follows that artists continue to find potential in the form of the rug. It offers artists and designers from around the globe a forum to take on the appropriation of cultural, racial, and gender roles and stereotypes within the framework of a decorative object turned art object. 

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Interweaving Past and Present

Because the rug is an object of daily use throughout cultures, and across societal stratifications, it is familiar and widely approachable by all, offering an entry point for artists’ manipulations, reinterpretations, and new creations. This provides the context to merge past with present, serious history with pop culture, and stereotypically Eastern and Western ideologies.

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Patterning a Communal Experience

Perhaps because our world is incredibly interconnected and there is an open exchange of ideas on a global scale, many artists at this moment in time are choosing to turn to more personal and communal histories—stereotypes even—when addressing this functional object. The range and richness of voices embedded in the simple carpet illustrate that these objects are not inert, but are often complex expressions of ideas and points of view. Instead of mixing symbols from various cultural sources, these artists highlight particular elements of unique communities to show that despite trade and cultural exchange, referencing our personal experience can be incredibly powerful.

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Delineating a Sense of Place

From area rugs used to divide or decorate a room, to prayer rugs marking a personal sacred place for devotion, rugs serve to delineate space. That notion of space also extends into the global realm, early on through trade, up to today via displacement and emigration. Highly-valued carpets signaled wealth and worldliness for their owners on the opposite side of the world from where they were created. On the other end of the spectrum, refugees fleeing their countries, could roll up and take their prayer mats as one of their very few possessions as they settle in new lands. For some of the artists in the exhibition, this aspect of signaling “home” despite global mobility is at the heart of the work.

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Looming Politics

Since the work of artists included in RugLife is both prescient and reflective of current cultural issues, it is not surprising that many of the works are more politicized, given our highly charged and divisive political climate. The rug offers to artists a medium and syntax for expression, long after the ritual and functional roles of the rug have been supplanted. As a result, these works touch on issues that define our culture, expressed through the ubiquitous and accessible format of the rug.

Featured Artists 

Nevin Aladağ, Azra Aksamija, Ali Cha’aban, Sonya Clark, Liselot Cobelens, Nicholas Galanin, Johannah Herr, Oksana Levchenya, Noelle Mason, Wendy Plomp, Stéphanie Saadé, Slavs & Tatars, Ai Weiwei, and Andrea Zittel.

About the Curators

Guest Curators, Ginger Gregg Duggan + Judith Hoos Fox, c²-curatorsquared

RugLife is organized by the Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, and guest curators Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox of c²-curatorsquared.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. Additional general operating support is generously provided by Ameriprise Financial. Special thanks to the KHR McNeely Family Foundation, Kevin, Rosemary, and Hannah Rose McNeely, for their support of the Weisman's exhibitions and exhibition-related programming.

Image credits: (Top to Bottom) Oksana Levchenya, Pac Man and Cossacks, 2022, hemp thread and natural dyed wool, 80 x 140in. Image courtesy of the artist. Sonya Clark, Comb Carpet, 2008, combs, cable wire, 20 3/4  x 28 1/2 x 19in. Image courtesy of Taylor Dabney. Ali Cha’aban, Grandpa’s Monobloc, 2023, Plastic Chair, Persian Rug, 20 3/4  x 28 1/2 x 19in. Image courtesy of the artist and Leila Heller Gallery, New York, NY and Dubai, UAE. Ai Weiwei, Tyger, 2022, Hand-knotted, hand-spun, hand-dyed natural Ghazni wool, 80 x 80in. Unique with two artist’s proofs. Image © the artist and WWF-UK.