Carpet Stories

All crafts tell tales.  In my view, master crafts tell extraordinary tales that come straight from the spirit- talking of love, life or nature.  Mass produced crafts often talk of life in factories or life in the modern world with its lack of time and concern for detail.

Some months ago we visited Danny Mehra's extraordinary exhibition of tribal rugs from central Asia.  Danny is not a craftsman but a collector and he has an unusual eye and a deep interest in tribal carpets.  (This blog is weeks overdue.  My apologies, I am still learning with my little boy, as his routines change and grow.)

We bought a carpet at the exhibition, which spoke of different things to each of us.  Danny said he originally bought it because of its golden hue.  My husband felt it was like an impressionist painting - colours melding into each other and producing a certain effect that the individual colours would not.  The carpet spoke to me of days in the sun - wandering through fields of wheat and poppies.  My son likes it because it is soft and has pretty flowers and an interesting (and sacred) pattern of interwoven turtles.

Danny is exhibiting his carpets in Delhi from December 18th to 28th at the India International Centre (for readers who live in Delhi).  The exhibition is titled Carpet Stories and Danny will display rare tribal carpets from Persia, Anatolia, the Caucasus, Central Asia and various Kurdish enclaves.  It's worth seeing as our museums do not really have collections of tribal carpets from these regions.  (For anyone who would like to know more about them, Danny can be contacted at dannymehra@yahoo.com )

There will also be a few talks at this event.  Danny strongly denies professional knowledge in this area, emphasising that this is his hobby, but his knowledge accumulated over the years is quite vast, and he is always happy to share it with people.

I'm ending with a few words from Danny's mail and some pictures I took from his earlier exhibition.

I would like to personally invite you to my exhibition and will be delighted if you are able to come!

All the carpets on display have been selected from my personal (mad) collection and are my humble tribute to the rich weaving traditions of prominent tribal groups from various regions outside India.

The exhibition will run daily during December 18-28 from 11 AM to 7 PM.  A summary of additional events is given below...please join us for as many of them as you can!