Flying carpet and other findings
2024
exhibition at HOP gallery, Tallinn
…Newly arrived and quite ignorant of the languages of the Levant, Marco Polo could express himself only by drawing objects from his baggage – drums, salt fish, necklaces of hogs’teeth – and pointing to them with gestures, leaps, cries of wonder or of horror, imiating the bay of the jackal, the hoot of the owl.(1)
I. Calvino, “Invisible Cities”
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Italo Calvino’s book “Invisible Cities” is a collection of descriptions of cities by the merchant Marco Polo. Polo describes the visited cities to the great ruler Kublai Khan solely through the objects gathered on his journeys, whose meanings change according to how the storyteller rearranges them or the gestures he adds to them. What made each message from his inarticulate informer valuable to the ruler was the space that remained around it; a void not filled with words. You could wander in them in thought, become lost, stop and enjoy the cool air or run off.(2)
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In her essay “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” (1986), Ursula K. Le Guin writes that it is time to stop talking about “how the mammoth fell on Boob and how Cain fell on Abel and how the bomb fell on Nagasaki (…). “(3) She proposes a theory according to which the first cultural device was not a spearhead to kill with, but a container in which to hold, into which to collect, and from which to share. Le Guin shifts the focus from the hero as an individual to the container as a keeper. Ignoring the great hero myth and bloody events, Le Guin writes in her stories about everyday life, imperfect people, and small but important things.
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At the exhibition “Flying carpet and other findings“ Ingrid tells stories like a traveling merchant, drawing woven carpets, textiles, and other finds from her carrier bag before us. Guided by Le Guin’s theory, Ingrid’s stories are inspired by life itself, small beautiful moments, mysteries, and a handful of unanswered questions. Her working method involves collecting and intertwining what is gathered and experienced into stories. In this manner, she tells the story of herself, the material, textile art, and the history of the world.
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In English there’s a saying “weaving a spell”, like an example in the dictionary: „Her storytelling wove a spell over the children.“(4) In Persian one „waves“ (baftan) poetry. Equally, carpet (farsh) in mystical poetry can become the „path“ (farsh) to enlightenment.(5)
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In the series “Carpets of ten thousand thoughts“’ Ingrid has woven stories into the carpets – stories without heroes, but with events and life. Recognizable are the river and the sun, the fortress-mountain, the spiral – symbols whose meanings come from the viewer’s imagination and which allow for the telling of ten thousand stories.
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In Chinese culture, ten thousand signifies an infinite number. When we think of an infinite number, we think of something immeasurable, like outer space. The latter is also often the theme of Persian carpets, which depict the cosmic order in the world. It is not unusual for the pattern to end unexpectedly, for example, before the completion of a symmetrical pattern. The reason given is that the carpets depict the infinity of the divine world, and even a small part of this world is as important as the whole.(6) We can encounter a similar approach in Ingrid’s textiles.
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A cross-cultural phenomenon is the depiction of a bowl as a symbol of the sky dome. Similarly, eastern cultures weave a sky into their medallion carpets. When looking at the sky, it was speculated what held up the sky field? One answer was a gigantic tent pole, the top of which was called the gate of heaven, from where one could see the Garden of Eden. This story has been captured by the artist in the work “In the beginning there is center, in the center there is beginning”
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Coming back to Le Guin and the bowl-container symbol through the metaphor of the sky, I hope the reader has received a key with which to approach this exhibition. Also, I hope, the space created by the artist offers the viewer opportunities to lose themselves in thought and wander around, finding stories based on their own experience of life and knowledge.
Finally, to take something into their mental carrying bag and continue the journey.
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Text by Kerly Ritval
