There are two amazing, if troubling, exhibitions at the South Dakota Art Museum through November. One is called “Afghan War Rugs; the modern art of central Asia.” These rugs depicting the works of war are a rather late development among weavers of the area. Although weapons may have appeared in the borders of rugs earlier, most actual “war rugs” began appearing after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Since the Soviets were present there for ten years and the U.S. invaded shortly after the Twin Towers, the people of Afghanistan have suffered for decades from foreign occupation and military might.

I recall the justification given for the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. It was the harboring of Osama Bin Laden. The offer to turn him over if evidence was shown he was responsible for 9/11 was ignored by the Bush administration and in the first three months of our invasion an estimated 5,000 civilians were killed. It was ironic how the CIA conducted operation MIAS (Missing in Action Stingers) during those first few months of the U.S. presence, to buy back Stinger missiles, sold to the Afghans to fight the Soviets. And of course, Afghanistan is no longer harboring Osama Bin Laden, killed in Pakistan long ago

Since we are still there, in the longest war in U.S. history, it is little wonder that the subject matter of art and artists would include the dominant narrative of the day war.

There are some 40 rugs in the museum exhibition. Two of them have an American drone theme. The woven borders are bombs. One rug pictures a military base. Many of them depict tanks, helicopters, planes and soldiers, both Soviet and U.S. It’s almost like the two countries are interchangeable for an Afghan weaver. Both superpowers bring war, death and destruction. 

The “war rugs” exhibition reminded me of a visit to Nicaragua during the war with the U.S. supported “contras.” The Witness for Peace group I was with was staying in a refugee community not far from the Honduran border. I stayed with a family of six in the only two-room cement block structure in the area. One of their children had been shot through the lower leg and walked with a crutch and a dangling foot. Another child we visited in the makeshift hospital. She was undergoing surgery to try and save her arm, damaged by a grenade. When the doctor came out of surgery he spoke with us about the problems for children in this wartorn area. He said, “The only game they have is war.”

The reality is, war pervades everything. If you are in the midst of it, waking or sleeping, artist or child, there’s no escape from its presence. “War Rugs” brings that reality to us in a powerful way.

The other exhibition at the museum is “1 Roof 2 Airs.” Here are artistic works by artists living in the U.S., but with personal historical ties to conflicts in the Middle East and Asia. How does one see the world if you are driven by war to another land, another culture? What does it feel and look like to be a product of two different communities but not completely at home any longer in either one?

Padram Bandari caught my attention with “Art Is My Weapon.” We are shown a rifle case, elegant with a soft fabric inside, and a clarinet lying where the gun barrel would be. For me, this art is double barreled. There is the visual art piece as well as the inclusion of sister music.

Or you should see “Receiving Blanket.” You could use it as a cover on a cold South Dakota night. The only problem is it might disturb your sleep as there is an image of a bombed Aleppo home on it. You would be sleeping warm and cozy under a casualty of war.

Another piece in this exhibit that caught my attention was “Flying Kites Across Borders.” Walls and fences don’t stop the wind, nor the flying of kites. Artists help us visualize all kinds of ways we can overcome obstacles. 

Artists are helping it happen on our southern border. There is the teeter totter, pink in color, that goes through the border wall. All it takes is one child in Mexico and one in the U.S. to make it go. There is the theatre group, dressed as animals, walking the fence looking for a place to cross. There is the Catholic priest, standing on one side of the border and offering the eucharist through the wall to those on the other side. Or there is the contest underway to climb the wall. Who can do it the quickest? 

Thank you South Dakota Art Museum for this thought-provoking exhibition. Here’s hoping some of those thousands gathering on the SDSU green today will have a chance to visit and be moved.