09.10.-01.12.2024
Museum of New Art
Traditional tapestries made using various techniques are the most colorful part of the Estonian textile treasury. The collection aims to help sustain the preservation of textile techniques of native crafts, emphasizing its roots and acknowledgment of the environment, where the original method of embellishment is the usage of metals. Using metals and textiles together is part of the heritage of multiple cultures. They push their consumer to look at the differences and to see similarities within, and value unique interior textiles as a validator of identity. Many different cultures have used silver knowingly and meaningfully as an embellishment.
I made my first plaited tapestry in the previous century, in 1998. It was a festive wedding tapestry for the Vodka Distillery of Heimtal. Since then, a lot has changed, both the world and the people. But love for home and Estonian traditions has only grown and become truer. The exhibition shows the latest tapestries, where I have searched for symbolic and meaningful patterns to explain the meaning behind being Estonian at this moment in time. By using these techniques, keeping traditional and adding “silver” as the artist’s technique, I emphasize the culture of embellishment and the importance of protecting the person throughout the centuries.
There’s wisdom that people have written down, but there’s also the kind we inherit from home. What makes one wise and different from others? Answers hide between the lines as patterns on the tapestries. Seek, and you may find something of importance for yourself. But let’s take a minute before we start our journey and think about all the wisdom of our ancestors that we should take with us as we leave our home.
Let’s take a bow for all our foremother’s creations, for the inspiration!
The exhibition was possible thanks to the scholarship for teachers from the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Christi Kütt
graduated from Viljandi Culture Academy with a diploma in Estonian Native Craft in 1998 and with a master’s degree from the Estonian Academy of Arts in 2005. She’s recognized with the Young Keeper of National Heritage Award for preserving and developing folk arts and as a master of folk art and crafts in Viljandimaa.
She has worked as a textile lecturer in the Department of Native Crafts at Viljandi Culture Academy at the University of Tartu since 2005.
