War Rug Interview with Kevin Sudeith

The phenomenon of "war rugs" started in about 1979 with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Baluch rug weavers in Afghanistan started to incorporate military imagery into their rugs, such as tanks, AK-47s, helicopters, and fighter jets. This strange new tradition has continued and evolved as other traditional weavers in Central Asia and the Middle East followed suit. The War on Terror has provided much more inspiration for weavers.

The video above is an interview with Queens-based Minnesota native Kevin Sudeith, the best source of war rugs for sale around. Sudeith sells them online (his site warrug.com has long been linked here on The Masticator) and at various New York flea markets. The interview above took place at the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

For more information on war rugs, see the site Rugs of War. It's run by Nigel Lendon and Tim Bonyhady, two Australian scholars who have been researching and writing about war rugs for years. And see my May 17th post on a reception Sudeith had for Nigel Lendon when he was in New York last May.