Ersari – Central Asia

A Turkmen rug hand-woven by the Ersari, the ethnic group settled in southern Turkmenistan since the late 19th century. Red, in its infinite shades, is the Turkmen mother-tongue, and this exclusive Ersari speaks it fluently: rows of diamonds in earth red, white, black and brown march across the centre in a bold chequered lattice, tribal geometry at its most graphic. Five borders surround the field, the widest carrying flowers over a dark ground — a refined frame for so assertive a centre. Naturally elegant, quietly powerful, and strikingly modern to the contemporary eye.