Etusivu |
Rag is super international!Nowadays we seldom think how many hundreds of garments we have, not to mention where they are from. It might well be that the cotton we wear has been grown in Egypt, weaved in India and sewn in Turkey. So rag is a very international material. It wasn't like this before, when all our clothes were made at home, says Outileena Uotila. Elina ja Ulla-Maija Kylämarkula and Reika Vesala from the Finnish art association Itu ry agree on this view. Everyone has rag material. I have now looked through my own closets. Just like we women are of different ages, so are the rags; time is "sewn" in them. Rags are full of old and new memories. We handle and use rag in different ways in our works. Do we describe ourselves as rag dolls? Who is a scarecrow, an old doll or a figure made of a ball of rag? Rag is a versatile material. In Finnish language the word "rag" has a synonym, 'lumppu', which means a worn cloth as well as a bad woman. I wonder where this meaning derives from – that's not us, the women laugh and add that a worn one can become a new one! Reika Vesala, Outileena Uotila, Ulla-Maija Kylämarkula, Elina Kylämarkula Elina Kylämarkulab. 1956 About textile, weaving rag rugs I really love textile, how it feels and how it brings memories to you. Rag, old worn-out cloth reused. I weave rag rugs or cotton carpets, not always using old weft, but mostly byproduct from textile mill. I dye the weft into cheerful colors and then later the rolls of weft are searching partners on the floor of my weaving atelier in order to make delicious combinations. Often when I should weave I run to garden to water flowers. I look how the plants are doing, and maybe some of their colours end up into rugs too. I want to preserve the colours of summer for winter in the stripes of rugs. Sometimes I find the weft so beautiful, that I can´t use it for weaving. I just want keep it like it is. My atelier and home are situated in an old cowhouse, which belongs to farm of my family. The rugs are tested by my cats, and they are claw resistant and washable.
Elina Kylämarkula, Perkiöntie 13,
31640 Humppila Ulla-Maija Kylämarkulab. 1929 I paint aquarelle and oil paintings and make pottery. Now I am interested in rags. I use rag as material for my crochet and weaving works. Gardening is very important to me. The seasons in the garden gave me inspiration for my works in Apsida.
Perkiöntie 14, 31640 Humppila, Finland Outileena Uotilas. 1971 I think, I make with my hands and I think. The structure of the society around my amazes me, I'm interested in human life. To me taking care of farm animals, picking berries and walking in nature are a way of life. In the summer I work (as a hostess) on a traditional farm, Korteniemi, where we live and work as people used to in the 1910s. The farm belongs to Metsähallitus.
Outileena Uotila, Sarkiantie 293, 38200 Sastamala, Finland, Reika VesalaThreads and strings have symbolical meanings for me. They mean continuation and limitation, cutting and connecting, beginning and ending etc. These invisible opposites are source of my questions. Long materials have been useful for my creation, because they bend, can be used as lines, spread in space, limit and continue the space. These materials are source of my inspirations.
Reika Vesala
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