Dove and the Lamb – Sacred Design at Helsinki's Design Museum

Friday, 26 May 2006 10:55

Helsinki, Finland - The oldest objects in Helsinki parishes originate from the inner-city churches; St John's, the Cathedral and the Old Church.  The oldest exhibits date from the 17th-18th centuries.  The centenary exhibition of the Parish Union of Helsinki at the Design Museum features objects used in church ceremonies.  The exhibition is narrated chronologically and focuses on the 20th century.

The Dove and the Lamb, symbols of the Holy Spirit and Christ, are the commonest pictorial motifs employed in church ware.  These symbols are found in many of the objects and textiles at this exhibition.  Communion ware, church textiles, service wear, fonts and, among others, wedding crowns and rugs also reflect the changes that took place in church services in the 20th century.  In the 19th century, a church would use a white altar cloth and two chasubles, and a chalice and Bible cloth, but in the 21st century a full set of liturgical textiles can consist of many as 30–50 items.

At the start of the 20th century, liturgical colors were often still confined to black and dark red or violet.  After the Second World War, five liturgical symbolic colors expressing the period of the ecclesiastical year gradually proliferated – white, green, violet, red and black.  Use of the black clergyman's grown fell out of fashion and use of the alb, stole and chasuble spread. 

Communion vessels have been designed by the most well-known names in Finnish applied art.  Sets of unique Communion ware representing new design were ordered for churches built in Helsinki in 1910–1930.  Eric O.W. Ehrström created the unique silver design in Kallio Church, Henry Ericsson at Paul's and Gunilla Jung at Mikael Agricola Church.  Communion vessels and fonts were still being commissioned in large numbers from famous designers in the 1950–1970s.  Eero Rislakki designed the Communion plate (chalice paten and pyx) at Kallio and Hakavuori churches and Bertel Gardberg designed altar ware for fourteen churches in all.  International styles and influences, Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Functionalism and Modernism also had an impact on church ware design.

Series production of church ware has its roots in the pre-industrial age.  In the 20th century, large gold industry companies such as Kultakeskus and Suomen Kultaseppä Oy designed their own Communion ware ranges.  The sets of Communion ware designed in the 1960s by Tapio Wirkkala for Kultakeskus Oy are still in production.  In 1966, Kirkon hankintakeskus, part of the Finnish Church's home missionary society, began designing and manufacturing church textiles and Communion ware.  Today, Sacrum, part of Kotimaa Group, supplies objects for virtually all church activity.

Helsinki churches own a substantial collection of Finnish church textile art, ordered from over sixty textile artists.  Between 1912 and 1980, the Friends of Finnish Handicraft made textiles for almost forty church premises in Helsinki parishes.  Church textiles have been designed by, among others, Hilkka Vuorinen and Raija Rastas. For example, the textile plans which Ritva Puotila was commissioned to do for Vuosaari Church are also by the Friends of Finnish Handicraft.

Dora Jung is representative of the high-quality church textile production of the post-war period not only artistically but also as a skilled exponent and communicator of Christian symbolism.  The motifs woven into Jung's fabric are graphically interesting and rich in theological meaning. Jung's first chasubles, made in 1935, are also on view at the exhibition...which ends 28 May.

Only some of the exhibits are kept in museums or are restricted in use.  The stocktaking that began in 2002 – charting, identification and documentation – as well as restoration of objects, has made it possible to hold as extensive an exhibition of church ware as this.  The database of valuables currently contains identifying and historical data on some 3,500 objects as well as digital photographs.  The Parish Union's art collection consists of some 1,300 works of art, with over 1,400 church textiles and 800 other objects in total.

Visit The Design Museum at : http://www.designmuseum.fi/