The impulse in Berber rug-making to both interrupt and also loosely maintain a pattern seems unique in traditional textiles. If not unique, then it’s hard to name a tradition that equals Berber mastery of this particular tension. In Berber carpets, especially those produced in the Beni Ouarain region, this semi-controlled disorder is said to function as a talisman against evil and as a promoter of fertility.
After weeks of snow in Vancouver I randomly searched for “Siberian interiors” on Flickr, just to see how snowy regions decorate. Maybe it has nothing to do with counteracting the blank endless wastes of snow, but the standard Siberian decorating philosophy seems to be “There’s No Such Thing as Too Much Pattern.” The exceptions were an amazing white shop interior in Novosibirsk, above, almost Swedish in its simplicity, and a museum version of a traditional Siberian wooden house, at bottom.
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