BOUCHEROUITE OURIKA RUG 155 X 220

This medium sized rug would look amazing in a teenager's or child's bedroom.   

MOROCCAN VINTAGE BOUCHEROUITE RUG

THE BOUCHEROUITE rug is made for domestic use out of recycled scraps of nylon, cotton, and sometimes wool. The weaver's loom can become the ground of a passionate struggle between self-expression and the chaos of the unconscious, between the life-force of kinship ties and ancient traditions and the trials of modern life.

In small villages in the southern regions of Morocco, the women paint their hands and feet with abstract saffron-colored motifs, wear ornate dramatic jewelry, and weave carpets that are expressive of profound emotion - at once unconscious and spiritual, archetypal and primal, tribal and symbolic. In the often economically and culturally isolated, provincial homes where the boucherouite is made, the domestic culture is curiously supportive of the weaver's total freedom of expression through her craft.


The pulsing life of these rugs is found in the roiling vortexes of line and color, in delicate pointillist movements, and in the almost lyrical play of form and space. Striking, unconventional compositions reflect all the joy and drama and sublime spirituality of small town life. But also, the close proximity of nature.

The most radical, abstract boucherouite styles call to mind a Saharan oasis at dawn, an Atlas mountain sunrise, a shimmering valley stream in late afternoon, a walk along a craggy mountain path to the village well, or a bowl of cous-cous. The colors of earth and sunlight, loosely interpreted with subtle harmonies and bold contrasts.

The Berber woman's unconscious experimentation with the changing mood and light of her immediate environment can been seen in the most superb examples of the boucherouite. As in the finest examples of modern art, the boucherouite rug presents a kind of direct relationship between the outer world and emotional sensitivities of the weaver. Able to express her passions at the head of a loom, the Berber woman often employs intensely resonant, otherwise un-realistic color.

The effect is modern art on par with the Fauves and the Cubists. Bright, synthetic color becomes a means of personal expression, for describing the tribal weaver's spatial environment, as well as for communicating her emotional state. Large blocks of color create a deliberate sense of mood, which is then interrupted by the tiny playful rhythms of pointillist dots, cubes, and rectangles. The most prized boucherouite rug mingles shape, form, and light to create a harmonious visual tone that is calming and at the same time surprising, even disorienting.

When this occurs, the boucherouite rises above the simple rag rug to the level of modern art - expressive, decorative, and sometimes monumental. It is for the possibility of infinite expression and richness of emotion, for its joyousness and celebration of life's simplicities, that the boucherouite has begun to beguile artists and collectors everywhere.

In the visual poetry of the boucherouite, the Berber woman creates a light-filled atmosphere through an identification with nature and its rhythm, and by tapping that spiritual connection with the subconscious that allows her to express herself in her own language. The most striking of boucherouite rugs never betrays the labours it has cost the weaver to create such a masterpiece.

All are hand washed then sun dried in the Marrakesh sun before arriving in HK.

➤ Color: Natural cream white, blue, pink, orange, black, red, green and lime green
➤ Age: 20 to 30 years
➤ Material: Wool + recycled thread
➤ Pile: Medium

155 X 220cm