Małgorzata Pepłowska

Life like a woven carpet

For a layman who does not know the art of weaving, weaving such a precisely measured carpet appears to be extremely difficult. For Ms. Małgorzata Pepłowska, mistress in this field, it is a simple task: she counts the warp threads according to the formula that is in her head, and then she puts through it a shuttle with a weft of her weaving story with great finesse and fluency. Work is moving forward with every line, discovering new chapters of history, created by the artist.

No one can weave a double-warp images telling about life, everyday humdrum and spirituality, like Pepłowska. In her carpets, she “breaks” the world into scenes: she recalls past by weaving carts with horses, wooden huts, old occupations, she fills her works with nostalgia and love for the simplicity of life. Her main topics include the relationship between a person and nature, the vitality of seasons, home country, and her home town, Węgrów. Modern, contemporary city often becomes the subject of her works too. Pepłowska creates these stories herself, then she translates them into the two-colour world of carpets– face side and back side, dark and light, like the world’s dichotomy. With each glance, you discover them again, they carry precision, close to computer graphic designers, and multidimensionality.

The basic colour of works woven by her is the natural colour of wool yarn – cream-coloured, warm, pleasing to the eye. The other, dark colour, obtained during dyeing – is a variety of shades of brown. Pepłowska is probably able to weave almost everything, either according to her own invention, or on request. She says she could weave and weave, almost not leaving her workshop – work gives her relax and breather.

Małgorzata Pepłowska has found her destiny in the Cooperative of Folk and Artistic Craft in Węgrów where she learned the craft of weaving. Since then, she has come a long way, during which she has transformed from a well-prepared weaver to an appreciated artist in this field, as evidenced by her collaboration with many institutions in Poland and numerous awards. She has been also developing in another traditional, unique and “fragile” area cultivated only in Podlasie – Christmas decorations from colourful wafers. She cuts all sorts of shapes out of them, glues together the so-called worlds and suspendable balls, she invents other forms, e.g. Christmas angels. Ms. Małgorzata also makes flowers from crepe paper, makes the space more colourful and joyful. It would seem that no one could surpass the artists from Kurpie in this field, but Ms. Małgorzata is also able to make something of her own – her crepe-paper daisies look very lifelike.

She has now her own studio near her house, with two weaving looms – a wide one and a narrow one. This is where she exhibits her works and runs workshops.

She participates in numerous events, both local and at the voivodeship level. She runs handicraft workshops, and teaches traditional regional decoration techniques to children and teenagers. Her works are in the collections of museums in Poland and abroad. They have been shown in exhibitions in Beijing and New York, among others. She received the highest awards for them in various competitions. The Ministry of Culture has awarded her a scholarship to develop the handicraft creativity in the field of double-warp weaving. She has also received the Ministerial Award “For special merits in promoting folk culture”. She is a laureate of the Oskar Kolberg award “For contributions to the folk culture”.