Investigating the Hushang Shah Carpet with Gilbert Doran Approach

Qajar era is one of the large periods of Iranian history. In the era an appropriate context was provided for the growth of all kinds of arts, including the art of carpet industry. The Iranian handwoven carpet had had various changes, designs, and motifs. Carpet has imported on cultural and social trends and different eras have seen various designs and weavings. Pictorial carpets were generally from Iranian epic and mythological literature. In this relatively long period, the majority of Iranian arts such as carpet weaving, after a period of stagnation, once again revived and artists in continuing Iranian rich art over the years, especially the Safavid period, began to create artistic works. This works in the context of developments and arising from the circumstances of the society of that era contained features and independent identity that had a significant difference from the era before it. Qajar era is a period in the history of Iran in social, political, and economic areas creating a new era in Iranian history. In the Qajar era, there were royal exhibits and artists made portraits and pictures of their contemporary kings. Kings’ and princes’ picture simulation was a novel art. 19^th century can be called the beginning of the picturing movement and its affection for the Iranian carpet. Under these circumstances, pictorial carpets were produced and their installation on walls made an evolution in carpet utilization and the presentation of the picture on carpets was more justifiable. Qajar period faced many ups and downs and good and bad days, incorporating a wide range of changes due to the presence of competent and incompetent kings ruling the vast country of Iran. A major change in this period is the innovation of pictorial rugs, which were used to depict the king of the time Houshang Shah and were replete with national and mythical themes. These rugs were designed and woven not only under the influence of the fixed and custom patterns of their place and time but also based on their artist designers' imagination. The main materials of the imagination are the mental images; through creative mental imagery and in the light of clear experience and intuitive perception, the artist interpretably narrates the concerns of his world such as desires, frustrations, worries, and repressed dreams that have failed to be realized since childhood. All the elements embossed in the body of the rug arises from the previous comprehensive patterns. These previous comprehensive patterns can be analyzed using Gilbert Durand's mythological approach. Gilbert Durand was born in France in 1921 A.D. Durand’s theories are according to the triangle of mythology, anthropology, and the imagination. A large part of Gilbert Durand’s activities is related to the topics such as myth, fantasy, thinking about death, and time control. The imagination plays an important role in this regard. Myth and imagination create the implication of the design and pattern of Houshang Shahi pictorial rugs. The main root of these myths and imagination of the artist-designer is fear of the passage of time and attempts to control it. Durand maintains that all human being’s imaginations are inspired by the concept of time. All imagined forms, therefore, are essentially rooted in time. Gilbert considers the period of fear to be the main source of human imagination throughout the ages and introduces death as the greatest fear of man. Durand provided a complete list of previous structural stimuli and traditional structures as two systems, namely night and day. He believed that every art contains elements of the two poles of dreadful and without dread. He believes that time demonstrates itself by the images; in fact, the structures forming the imaginative figures are entirely based on the “time” and Durand specifies the discourse and image networks of a literary and artistic work by his method. This means that the images are indicative of the fear of the time because there is a “fear of death” behind every fear and a “fear of time” behind every death according to Durand’s theory. The man creates a relationship between the fear and the time and realizes he goes towards the death by the passing of time then fears and consequently, a series of dreadful images (animal figure, dark figure, and fall figure symbols) will appear in his imagination and mind. The presence of elements of imagination, myth, and previous comprehensive patterns in Houshang Shahi rugs has led us to use Durand's theory. In the present research, Durand’s imagination approach has been used to analyze the visual content of the Houshang Shahi pictorial rugs and particularly its diurnal and nocturnal pictorial patterns. In the first part of the article, Durand’s imagination approach has been addressed. In the second part, the visual structure of the carpet has been analyzed based on the mentioned approach. The artist-weaver has successfully created a new space by changing the patterns of Houshang Shahi rugs, overcoming his fears with the images of the night system, and creating a calm and moderate atmosphere on the Houshang Shahi rug by bringing the contrastive positive and negative symbols of the day system. To achieve this goal, the following questions are raised: Are the images of mythical imagination evident in Houshang Shahi rugs? If there are images of mythical imagination in Houshang Shahi rugs, do they have the metaphysical power to create works against destruction, death, and destiny? What approach is the dominant mythical imagination in Houshang Shahi rugs? The present study tries to answer these questions according to Gilbert Durand's night and day system. The required data were collected using the desk research method. To describe and analyze Houshang Shahi rugs, the attempt was made to use valid and first-hand works. This is important because one of the goals is to recognize the mythical concepts of Houshang Shahi rugs' design and pattern using a new approach. The artist-designer and weaver display his/her beliefs as well as the dominant discourse of the time in Houshang Shahi rugs and uses bipolar contrastive (the day system) and interactive (the night system) elements and symbols to achieve this goal. According to the research findings, it can be concluded that the artist weaver has used the constructs explained by Gilbert Durant to illustrate the subject of Houshang Shah to express his ideal theme and immortality with great emphasis in Houshang Shahi rugs. In these rugs, the structure of the weaving artist's imaginative system is more inclined to draw images and symbols of the day system through positive evaluation and the night system; for the weaver, in the face of passion for life, death also has a hidden and permanent presence. And so that, it lapses, each of the symbols was presented in reciprocity to a human potential movement reaction, and it was also said that each of the reactions were due to the human's fear of confronting the time going on.Therefore, it can be said that by simultaneously using all three heroic (daily system), mysterious and hybrid structures, the designer has tried his best to create such a work that reflects the theme of striving for excellence and immortality well.