TIBETAN CARPETS

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33873, 19 June 1975, Page 21

TIBETAN CARPETS

It is not often that the Christchurch public is privileged to see exhibitions of craftwork from other cultures, especially something of the nature of the Tibetan carpets, produced by exiled craftsmen in India, made available through the agencies of Trade Aid (N.Z.) Inc. with the genorous support of a number of private contributors. The collection has been shown at the C. S. A. gallery. The motivation of Trade Aid, providing not aid but just reward for honest labour, perpetuating at the same time centuries old crafts and maintaining dignity in the craftsmen, is wholly admirable. For the collector these carpets, each the product of a month’s labour more or less depending upon the variation from the 6ft x 3ft. average size, are particularly good value, and that is abundantly clear from the commercial success of the exhibition. The typical motifs are geometric foliate and floral patterns, and such mythological beasts as the snowlion, phoenix and dragon. The designs are close to those of Chinese rugs with more sudden transitions from one form to another than is customary with Turkestan or Caucasian carpets, a quality further by the clipping of the pile in relief creating actual changes in surface level between forms. The density of the pile was noted to vary from the one rug to the other but all those available for sale employed colours attained from modem imported synthetic dyes. Indeed, this is now the

I general tendency throughout I the carpet producing centres of the near and further East, and it is to be regretted for the colours are harsher, ( even when less bright, than those not so indestructable ones achieved through traditional techniques. The visitor will be aware of these differences between many of the loan carpets and the majority of sale pieces, partly the' result of the use of different dyes, and partly due to the mellowing processes of age and use.

The decision to expand the sale collection by the inclusion of carpets from private collections was a com-' mendable one since we have ! been thus provided with a didactic range of types from different centres, of differing] ages, and of differing quali-’ ties. Downstairs Trade Aid have mounted a second sale exhibition of tapa, batik, | nasketwork. weaving, em-l broidery, shellwork and car- ( ving from the Pacific basin. Sri Lanka. Tibet. India and 1 Bangladesh. — TL.R.W.