Showing posts with label Tradition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tradition. Show all posts

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Root printing and a new project. And: Stealing back "forbidden" signs

This is a rutabaga. I cut it into pieces with smooth edges. These letters are runes.









Why this? Right wing ambitions? Oh, no. I just feel that these traditional letters must be taken back into culture. The only way to free them from evil traditions is to start new ones, hopefully for the better.

I start printing an Estonian magic spell. This one was written down by the ethnologist Fr. Kreutzwald and published 1854. It is about subdueing anger and envy from others. Some of these spells were to make the dough rise well and help making butter; others were to protect the rural serfs from being beaten by their owner. -- These magic spells were not written in runes. They weren't written at all, because Estonians traded them by oral transmission. To use these letters is my own idea.

This is part of a new project. I used black thick textile paint which can be fixed by ironing, and plan to cut it in stripes and sew it onto the "Witches Gown". This is the name of my new project. As a base I want to use a piece of black cotton with kawry shells and a little embroidery which I made for myself as a thing to wear; then I did not really. This piece had other plans with me.

An unbelievably rich source on traditions is this Estonian online journal.