Working as an artist in a Museum

Artist in Residence (American Swedish Institute, Minneapolis)

ASI organised an exhibition about Tuomas Sopanen’s remarkable textile collection. He has collected traditional Finnish Ryijy –textiles. His collection contains x ryijys. The oldest are from 17^th century.

Ryijys were originlly bedcovers, but during centuries they evolved into furnishing material, shed blankets, carpets, and artworks. Ryijy is a valued symbol of Finnish textile tradition and art. Ryijys can be woven in a loom, or sown with a needle to a base fabric. The basic idea of a ryijy is that it is a fabric with a pile. In most cases the fabric is strong and dense, and the pile is wool with length of 1-2 inches. Traditionally the warp has been linen with 7-8 threads per inch, and the weft and pile has been wool. Contemporary ryijys can be really experimental, but surprisingly the traditional form is still very popular. Usually you can tell the age of the ryijy by its pattern design.

I worked as an artist in the actual exhibition. I had an old loom in one of the exhibition halls, and I had my own piece that I was weaving. I used home dyed wool yarns. My technique was quite traditional, but I had my own expressive pattern. I wanted to apply a bit more pedagogics to my job than I was required, so I also taught visitors to weave a bit. I wanted the visitors to make a ryijy knot. I could teach the visitors to make it in the loom, or in the side table where I had a point for learning to sew the pile in a ready made base fabric. It was interesting to learn, how you can teach such a thing the easiest way.

I also talked a lot to the visitors. Some people wanted to know about the history of ryijys, but surprisingly many people wanted to tell me about their scandinavian or finnish ancestors. Many americans seem to find their identity through the origins of their parents and grandparents.

I also held guided tours in the exhibition focused on colour. We started the tour in the basement, where were the oldest ryijys. I told about the history and development of dyeing and dyes, and showed examples of use of color back in the days, where only certain colors were easy to produce. Some dyes also fade quicker, and some dyes make the fiber weaker. With small amount of colors to use you can still make vivid color compositions. By putting different colors next to each other, our eyes see the colors differently. In upper levels, I showed examples of the use of color in Ryijys. I went through the compositions of colors, the effect of the material to the colour, the basic color theories and their use in ryijys, perception of color, and a lot of tips to make good color compositions in your own craft and art works.   

I also gave a lecture about interior textiles in Finland. I focused on four different textiles: Ryijys, täkänäs, raanus and käspaikkas. I told the basic information of each textile, the techniques to produce them, the basic designs and patterns, traditional functions and the contemporary status. I showed pictures of them, and I also had a great collection of samples on display, which visitors could touch. Ryijys, raanus and täkänäs were all textiles which served as blankets traditionally. Täkänäs are double clothes with hand picked large patterns. The weaving process is complicated and time consuming. Raanu is a basic word to describe large variety of dense fabrics that have woollen weft. Käspaikka is a Carelian towel, which has many seremonial purposes with usually red complicated patterns done by embroidery or other techniques. 

The lecture was a success, and I managed to make it funny, informative and fluent. That experience gave me even more courage to perform in front of others. I felt really good after it, and I hope I will get similar assignments soon. I did a lot background work for making the lecture. I read a lot and asked specific questions from my teachers. It is easy to tell about things that you know, but I should get rid of perfectionism.