My Family’s Carpet

By The Surreal McCoy (Carol Isaacs)

My Family’s Carpet is inspired by the war rug tradition of Afghanistan. This tradition originates from when rug makers began to use images from the years of Soviet occupation during the late 1970s, and later the American invasion, in their designs. Tanks and machine guns fill their carpets in response to the military, political, and social conflicts. Incongruous images depicted in rich colors, expertly woven.

In My Family’s Carpet, amongst the amulets, religious paraphernalia, musical instruments, and Iraqi sweetmeats, Carol Isaacs also pictures guns and hand grenades. Isaacs writes, “This is to remember the time after the 1941 Farhud when Iraq’s Jews decided they could never allow that to happen to them again; some of my family learned to use guns as young teenagers. The centerpiece of the carpet is a map of Baghdad with the Tigris river running through it. This is my own family’s war rug.”