Colourful collection of tribal weaving on show in Dubai

Warm and rich - telling stories of life, of dreams, of little, everyday things. The stories woven in an explosion of colour. These are the carpets and bags made by Bedouin women of the Middle East. Nearly 500 such woven pieces in various sizes are on show at the Total Arts gallery in Courtyard, Al Quoz, Dubai.

Dariush Zandi, architect, calligrapher and the man behind the Courtyard complex, collects many of these carpets and bags from tribal villages. The others, a friend collects for him. They are then cleaned and restored at workshops outside Tehran, Iran.

"The pieces on display have been woven by the women of tribes which move between Syria and Afghanistan. Most have been woven by women of the Bakhtiari tribe of central Iran," says Zandi.

"The very fact that they are woven by busy tribal women in their spare time and not by professional weavers make them interesting. This is how the women express themselves and the world around them," he adds.

The pieces have been woven by hand from goat hair and sheep wool, animals the tribes rear for livelihood. Some pieces use needlework with carpet squares. The patterns are primarily geometric. Diamonds and stripes, both vertical and horizontal, dominate. Recurrent motifs include birds, goats, sheep, camels, horses, flowers and jugs. The lines are simple and few, but the images are striking.

The pieces have been coloured with vegetable dyes in palettes of red, brown, yellow, blue, green and beige. Occasionally, there's some purple, but there's never any black. Dark brown, navy and bottle green are used instead of black to outline and define shapes and motifs.

"The colours represent the flowers around the tribal women, the plants, the fruits. The women weave it for themselves and their families, for regular use and decoration. Each piece is unique," Zandi points out.

The Dubai exhibition displays tribal weaving in different forms. There are kilims, carpets, namakdan (salt bags), mafrash (carpet/bedding bag), kamarband (belts that double as reins and tent ropes), jajim (a rug that can also be a blanket) and tacheh (bags hung over a horse and used to carry household goods).

In modern homes, each of these can be used as wall hanging, adding colour and warmth to the barest of rooms. Pieces of kilim have also been made into shoulder bags.

Prices of the woven materials range between Dhs 45 (for a shoulder bag) to Dhs 8,500 (for a large carpet). The price depends upon the size and quality of weaving and also the age. The carpet priced at Dhs 8,500, for instance, is 140 years old. The youngest piece in the exhibition is 40 years old.

"We know the age from the condition of the material, its colour and the style," says Zandi. He points out that, while the more recent weaving is a bit more sophisticated, in essence the colours and patterns remain much the same.

Just like the colours and patterns of nomadic life. l The exhibition runs until December 6. Total Arts is open from 10.00am to 1.00pm and from 4.30pm to 8.00pm, except Fridays.