Dowry – rugs and wedding plaids

14.12.2005

Dec, 14th 2005- Feb, 20th 2006

Christi Kütt's textile exhibition at the Estonian Embassy

Marriage and the beginning of new life have always been accompanied by wishes of welfare and happiness whose fulfilment was dependent on certain activities emerging from protection and defence magic. Ritual behaviour was meant to affect the destiny of the newlyweds and their mutual relationship. Rugs and plaids in weddings contain meanings tied to traditional beliefs and magic imaginations and these were understood both by users and the „audience“. Rug, blanket and plaid made for weddings accompanied the bride and groom until the groom's home. Blankets were initially woven only for weddings and they were used as the bed covers of the married couple. The things made for dowry measured bride’s needlework and weaving skills and wedding plaid was the crown of it.

Each individual has their own relationship to the past and past items. For me there is no new without the old, and that mainly via the items passed from one person to another. The motifs from dowry rugs and plaids from 19th and early 20th century West Estonia are the inspirational sources of the present exhibition. The collection was intended to emphasise the stability and sustainability of national needlework tradition, to form ties with the past and maintain that tie via clothing and home furnishing. According to my vision these plaids and rugs were made while keeping in mind women as the carriers of tradition. In woven collection I have utilised old needlework and adornment methods – embroidery and metal limbs, both used from ancient times, which emphasised the protective function of items. As a material I have used linen and woollen thread which are the most traditional and local materials of Estonia.

The exhibition was made as a practical part of my master work named „Wedding rugs from West Estonia: ethnographic subject, pedagogical and creative aspects.“

Christi Kütt