From lives of difficulty, the Kochan Kurds divine beauty. They live in Turkey, one of the four (along with Syria, Iran and Iraq) main bordering countries where Kurds struggle for rights. The Kochan in Anatolia, Turkey are known for exquisite textile geometrics put to utilitarian use. Called a “corn bag” the extra large open containers once held the harvest. Highly skilled artists created it with a sumac kilim technique that originated in the Caucasus when someone addressed the necessity of strengthening bags and rugs. It is a luxurious flatweave with texture achieved by hand wrapping pigmented weft threads over and under the warps, alternately four, then two. It becomes a symmetrically reinforced surface, tight yet rhythmic. The two smaller bags with necks were long deployed as spice sacks. They are both 80 years old. The double-sided saddle bag, its decorative loops well intact, is half a century old. All of these pieces, replete with saturated botanical dyes, are remarkable fusions of identity, utility and art.