Elibelinde

Medium: Tufted wool stretched on MDF, embroidered fabric and plexiglass
Year: 2017
Size: 270 x 230 cm
Edition: Unique artwork
Shipment: Assembled

About: 

Elibelinde (hands on hips) is a motif of a female figure that is commonly woven in flat kilim rugs and has many different variations. It symbolizes fertility, motherhood and the goddess in matriarchal beliefs and is usually used in the rugs to represent the weaver’s desire for marriage. The rug itself is considered an object of marriage gifting/exchange.

The installation is an enlarged motif made into a rug, was further stylized and was made to have a variety of colors instead of a solid block. The transformation of appropriated symbols is important in the work as this challenges what meanings this symbol conveys in different contexts. The piece is a collage of different cultural symbols of marriage from different times in history referencing of the material side to fairytale.

It is a play between empowerment of women and the reduction of women to a two dimensional object. The piece over the female head is a buqsha (one of the earliest forms of dowries in Islam) and behind it is a Cinderella carriage.