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 Felt carpets and yurts Filttepper Kyrgyz village women have throughout history invested a great deal of time and effort in making beautiful and elaborate felt carpets (shirdaks). The work on a single carpet is time-consuming and can take several months if one single woman does the whole job. The pattern normally follows the Kyrgyz decorative tradition. The colours are sharp, but vary somewhat according to which area the producer comes from. A shirdak has been a normal dowry for women on entering into marriage and has therefore had great sentimental value for its owner. These carpets were to be inherited or given away, not sold. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and in connection with the transition to a free market economy, these carpets have to an increasing extent been put on display for sale in markets and bazaars. This has led to their changing form, colour and social significance. From being carpets of consistently high quality, above matters of price and with great sentimental value, they have become objects for sale of varying quality that are practically given away at markets and bazaars around the country. These changes are opening the way for an industry in which women can produce carpets for sale and through this activity contribute money to the household at a time when unemployment is high and lack of money considerable. A problem in this connection is the fact that the competition among Kyrgyz artisans is sharp and that buyers around the world are fussy about what they buy. Many skilful artisans therefore fail the “quality control” and cannot sell what they produce. Often it is buyers in the West who in the final analysis decide what form and colour shall apply for the local artisans. For example, the world market does not to any great extent accept "false" colours. In the 20th century Kyrgyz carpet producers normally made use of artificial dye. Among the Kyrgyz a shirdak with strong colours is therefore often preferred to carpets with subdued natural colours. How one extracts dyes from natural sources has in the course of the last hundred years faded into oblivion and must be learnt again. In order to make any money the individual producer must sell to tourists and not make things for a small local group of customers who pay far less than the tourists. Producers must therefore make efforts to create products that the market wants. Tourists prefer to buy small, naturally dyed carpets that can be easily transported and easily placed in a living room or hall. An obvious question now is whether these changes will lead to these carpets’ losing their local distinctiveness. In the “West” it is emphasised in many quarters that the genuine and authentic among other ethnic groups must be preserved. Several paradoxes can be seen in this. The market, consisting of tourists from the “West”, buys small, naturally dyed carpets at the same time as it wants to cultivate the “authentic”, which turns out to be large carpets with strong artificial colours. Perhaps it can be said that the genuine and authentic have thus become a modern construct and that the western buyers are promoting the production of non-authentic goods in order to preserve the authentic. The pattern on the felt carpets nearly always follows the Kyrgyz decorative tradition. Here there is a certain amount of experimentation, but within quite clear limits. However, it is possible that we shall see a development in the direction of new combinations of patterns as the interest in the carpets increases and the categories of buyer are extended. The production of shirdaks has traditionally been a private matter and something a housewife has done alone. In recent times we can see that it has become more and more usual to make the carpets together with neighbours and relatives. Gradually there have come into being communities of women workers where they meet to make felt carpets and other felt objects for sale. Those who have been so fortunate as to get a contract with a sales outlet that is visited by tourists or sees to the forwarding of carpets to the capital, can sometimes provide for themselves and the family through this work. Since unemployment for men in the countryside is roughly 100%, these communities of women workers are becoming extremely important. Only exceptionally do men take part in the production of carpets. |
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27.09.02- 02.02.03 EDITORS: UTSTILLINGS- OG PUBLIKUMSSEKSJONEN,UKM INFO@UKM.UIO.NO. SITE CREATED BY FEBER AND FATGUY