The Universe

Галәм

TALES OF THE GOLDEN APPLES

Context

The role of women and needlework in Tatar culture

Process

Creating street embroidery together with the artist

Authors

Katika (Cegled, Hungary) and the residents of Almetyevsk

Address

Shevchenko, 182

The art object was created jointly with the residents of Almetyevsk

Context

The needlework tradition in Tatar culture. Example: crocheting.

Knitting, which is a type of needlework, is common in Tatarstan. Despite being an ancient craft, it also has a modern reading. Thus, the artist Katika came to Almetyevsk to hold a master class on a current and modern-day topic embodied in a traditional medium.

«Needlework has been taught to girls since childhood, so that by the time of marriage they would already have mastered the craft: a woman who knows how to weave and sew will be able to clothe the whole family, and to earn a living in a difficult situation using her skill. For example, during the Second World War, my grandmother sewed clothes for fellow villagers and exchanged them for milk to feed her three children. My second grandmother brought a sewing machine, which was considered a very good dowry, with her when she got married.

Books about Tatar costume and decorative and applied art are more focused on embroidery, jewelry art, and leather mosaic. As for knitting, I believe that this topic is under-researched. At the same time, almost everyone, describing their grandmothers, remember them with yarn and knitting needles, or with a knitting hook in her hands.

A confirmation of the fact that knitting is quite common and well-known to the Tatars is provided by a folk song «Shal bakhadem» («She knitted a shawl»). There is also the village of Kugerchen in Tatarstan, where shawls have been knitted from goat down for 100 years. Shawls are knitted exclusively by hand and sold both in Tatarstan and abroad. Knitting is most certainly not limited to shawls. For instance, on thematic knitting forums the term «Tatar knitting» is used to denote a method of knitting the sock heel.»

Albina Nurgalieva

Philologist, translator from Tatar and Turkish languages, fairy tale guide (photographer: Anton Selone)

The knitted art object «Universe», which now decorates the courtyard of an Almetyevsk building, is a part of Katika's «Beyond the Edge» series.

This series represents the artist's own understanding of space and its connection with femininity.

Katika's works from the «Beyond the Edge» series on display at The Contemporary Art Modern Project Gallery (Miami, USA), 2021.

The knitted art object «Universe», which now decorates the courtyard of an Almetyevsk building, is a part of Katika's «Beyond the Edge» series. This series represents the artist's own understanding of space and its connection with femininity.

Katika's works from the «Beyond the Edge» series on display at The Contemporary Art Modern Project Gallery (Miami, USA), 2021.

Process

Art form: panel
Style: street knitting
Technique: crocheting
Material: woolen and acrylic threads

The theme of the final season was care in its various forms. Care for loved ones and oneself, care for quality dialogue with the outside world, care for what remains after us, and for those who have to live on. These are not only the motifs of this season of the public art program, but also the meanings and values that the project team wants to preserve in the city after its completion. As part of the «Dialogue with the city» vector of the final season of the «Tales of Golden Apples» public art program in 2022, a series of master classes took place in Almetyevsk courtyards, where residents created art objects together with artists.

«"Tales of Golden Apples" is a program about residents and for residents. It's a place where communication and changes occur through creativity. The creation of the "Universe" took place together with the residents of nearby houses. Fairytale guides and Almetyevsk needlewomen joined the process. Both boys and mothers and daughters knitted – everyone wanted to contribute to the creative transformation of their courtyard and learn something new, socialize and make new friends.»

Ekaterina Udalova

Curator and author of the «Dialogue with the city» channel (photographer: Sergey Matveev)

The «Knitted Courtyard» master class took place on August 13, 2022. The residents of Almetyevsk, together with the artist Katika, mastered the street knitting technique and created the «Universe» art object. It now decorates the courtyard of the house at 182 Shevchenko Street. During the breaks, master class participants played guitar, drank tea with the baursaks and discussed their impressions of the new practice.

Photographer: Anton Selone

The «Knitted Courtyard» master class took place on August 13, 2022. The residents of Almetyevsk, together with the artist Katika, mastered the street knitting technique and created the «Universe» art object. It now decorates the courtyard of the house at 182 Shevchenko Street. During the breaks, master class participants played guitar, drank tea with the baursaks and discussed their impressions of the new practice.

Photographer: Anton Selone

Author

«I am walking further and further along the path of life, reaching out into the chaos, pulling out a thread, winding my yarn and creating my art. Sometimes it is beautiful. It has no practical use, but it makes life brighter, brings joy and attracts attention.»

Katika (Cegled)

Artist (photographer: Nika Ilyina)

Katika is a textile artist from Hungary. She works mainly with crocheting, studying themes of human attachment (Attachment, 2016; Kiss, 2018), individual and collective memory (Glitch-kulich, 2019; Grannie's Pixel: in Memory of Yuri Gagarin, the First Man in Space, 2019; Remembering Princess Diane, 2019), cultural icons and their influence on pop culture (Bjork, 2018; Gaga, 2018).

Street knitting, which the artist used in Almetyevsk, became popular in the USA in the 2000s. It became an analogue of graffiti, only in a knitted form. Magda Sayeg, who started this trend, had her own team called Knitta and her own tags – tags that say I Love Knitta. In her street practice, Katika made various embroideries: homage to «The Scream» by Edvard Munch and «Starry Night» by Van Gogh, big eyes и heart that stayedin Moscow and the Birth. Fragments of the Face series.

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