Колекцията ми от морско стъкло доста набъбна, но парчетата стават все по-малки. Трябваха ми нови идеи за тях. И тогава Фейсбук се напълни със снимки на кукери. Има някаква магия в древните обичаи за прогонване на зли духове, особено в облеклото и маските. Вдъхнових се и импровизирах с едно дълго и тясно парче. По-късно установих, че моделът може да се възпроизведе. Така се появиха на бял свят висулките "Kукери".
My sea glass collection is getting bigger and the pieces - smaller. I needed new design ideas for them. And then Facebook was flooded with pictures of kukeri. This ritual is believed to date back to 1500-1100 BC. Its purpose is to chase away the evil spirits, bring health to the people and ensure good farm produce. I was always fascinated with ancient evil chasing traditions, the related paraphernalia and outfits, especially the masks. The "kukeri" (this is the plural, the singular is "kuker") masks are supposed to be horrific but they often are two-faced - one nice face and one scary. The ritual takes place seven weeks before East Orthodox Easter. I felt inspired and improvised with a long and narrow piece of sea glass. Later, I realized the design could be reproduced. Thus, Kukeri pendants were born.
My sea glass collection is getting bigger and the pieces - smaller. I needed new design ideas for them. And then Facebook was flooded with pictures of kukeri. This ritual is believed to date back to 1500-1100 BC. Its purpose is to chase away the evil spirits, bring health to the people and ensure good farm produce. I was always fascinated with ancient evil chasing traditions, the related paraphernalia and outfits, especially the masks. The "kukeri" (this is the plural, the singular is "kuker") masks are supposed to be horrific but they often are two-faced - one nice face and one scary. The ritual takes place seven weeks before East Orthodox Easter. I felt inspired and improvised with a long and narrow piece of sea glass. Later, I realized the design could be reproduced. Thus, Kukeri pendants were born.
И малко снимки от кукерски шествия с връзки към авторските публикации:
And some pics taken during "kukeri" parades, linked to the original posts:
Снимка на Костадина Начева от публикация в блога й "Очила и куфар" (внимание, увлекателно четиво!):
Picture by Kostadina Nacheva, taken from a post in her travel blog - check it out for more great pictures (only in Bulgarian):
Снимки на Васко Копчев от албума Сурва 2018 във Фейсбук:
Pictures by Vasko Kopchev from his Facebook album Surva 2018:
В древността в обредите са участвали само мъже.
In the past, only men took part in the rituals.
Този ритуал е впечатлил лондонския фотограф Арън Клайн и той го е документирал по един невероятен начин - вижте проекта му "Кукери", откъдето е и снимката по-долу:
This ritual has impressed London based photographer Aron Klein and he has documented it in a most captivating way - this is his Project Kukeri, where the picture below comes from:
I came across Kukeri a year ago when I was doing research regarding promotion of native crafts. I came across this Bulgarian street festival and was fascinated by it. I wanted to ask you about it but I forgot. Hoping to see more mask based pieces from you. On a side note, the Bulgarian tribal bride makeup is super fascinating too. I hope that you'll write a post on their aesthetics
ОтговорИзтриванеKukeri ritual is a something you can't take your eye off, a plethora of masks and costumes, colorful, ugly and mostly oversized :) And those bells around their waists weigh tons! Frankly, I'm not sure about traditional bridal makeup, I think it might be more pronounced in the Rhodope mountains but then, there are so many ethnic groups with different traditions and rituals in this small country. Maybe one day I will dig more into them...
ИзтриванеYour wire wrapped sea glass creations are fantastic! They are all different shaped so there is the challenge factor!
ОтговорИзтриванеThank you, Pearl! Indeed, I always have to improvise :) But that's what I like about the sea glass - it is unpredictable!
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