Monday, August 6, 2018

Art report / Hamburg 5


This is the end of my art reports from Europe, with something kind of funny from the Hamburger Kunsthalle.

Annette Streyl,  BMW München / Palast der Republik / Reichstag Berlin (details below)

As the wall sign explains:  "The sculptures use architectural models as their starting point.  Annette Streyl had the Reichstag and other landmarks of German politics and history knit at a scale of 1:100 and hung them over a clothesline.  Deprived of their power and importance, they resemble pieces of wet laundry."

Germans might find more of an instant frisson of recognition, but if you aren't familiar with the buildings (as Americans would be, for instance, with a model of the White House) you have to take it on faith that these are accurate scale models.

I got a laugh out of these pieces, especially the limply dangling flag atop the Reichstag.  The tall BMW towers looked to me just like as a pair of long johns.

Worth the price of admission!





5 comments:

  1. I was surprised by the idea that knitting could be used as political commentary. I’m going to check into this and see if other knitters are doing anything similar. You probably know a lot more about this, since you’re a knitter and given to poitical commentary.

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  2. http://www.threadforthought.net/subversive-knitting/

    This is an interesting article from September, 2012, about poitical knitting. There’s even a term, craftivism, for it. I don’t like the term much, since “crafts” are associated with cheap, easy, summer camp, and not art.


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    1. I hate the term "craftivism" too but I have written about it here

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  3. I am so tempted to try to crochet the White House, or maybe the Capitol, since the dome would be a logical starting place.

    Mary Anne in Kentucky

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