The centre of this Sihli kilim resembles a totem. A column of pink and cream hourglass forms rises the full height of these 240 x 140 cm (7'10" × 4'7"), framed on either side by a deep brown that teems with hook, star and spiral motifs in saffron yellow and orange, as though two worlds coexisted within the same piece without ever mingling.
Woven by hand some 60 years ago in the Anatolian Aegean, this kilim has that quality of the great tribal pieces that seem to tell several stories at once. One does not know which to look at first, and that is precisely why one never stops looking at it.
