Nomadic women from the Middle East made the old transport and storage bags in this exhibition; most were woven with wool and hair from tribal livestock. Practical and durable, the bags also served as outlets for artistic expression, as saleable goods, and as emblems of identity.

To overlook the cultures from which these bags came and to appreciate them only for their colour and design is to miss a vital part of their importance. These bags are remnants of a way of life that is rapidly disappearing from our world, traces of a mode of being that is founded on community and tradition. Neither of those concepts means much to us today; we are left only with the nomads' rootlessness.

With warm thanks to Richard van Rutten, who kindly selected and lent the bags to this exhibition.