I look at the designs / See a woman / Who has never had a home. “AB” is not an image, not a textile. It is Qashqai “Rend Bafi”; a “scenario” waiting to be implemented; weaving wefts around wraps; its warp beam like kilims, its wefts being woven over two wraps and interlaced. The horizon line is lost and more beautiful.
The historical memory of Rend Bafi takes us to melodies, reminding us of the word “Qashqai” which is rooted from the word “Qachmaq” meaning “runaway”. “AB” is not static; undergone and experienced in motion. This carpet should not be “seen”, but “watched”, which means constant change of the observer’s place and the motion of “seeing”.
P.S.: In the first centuries after Islam, the carpet was called “Ghalin”, “Kalin” in Sassanid era and “Karineh” in Avestan, which is rooted from planting, because carpet knots are like “seedlings”. Each carpet knot is a seedling planted with hope and having a wish. It moves in time and place, beyond the image, a way to settle on the ground.
