Zwei alte Bücher
Being a book junkie (who loves books as books, and also wants to use them as collage elements) is fun, but gets expensive if you’re not careful. I went to a local Antiquariat (used book store) the other day with a ten euro bill, determined to spend no more. It was a success, as I found two books for 5€ each that will make amazing collage material.
Fritz Kühn was better known as a metal sculptor, but did publish several books of his photography between 1951-1964. Insel Hiddensee is an island off the Baltic coast of Germany, not far from Rostok, and the Russian border. It was an East German holiday destination during the Cold War, and according to Wikipedia,
Hiddensee was considered a niche for dissidents and dropouts who worked in the summer, often in hotels, restaurants, or as lifeguards.
Niederdeutsch is “low German” and in this case refers to northern Germany, including the Baltic coast (and Insel Hiddensee), and parts of the states of Lower-Saxony, Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, Bremen, and Saxony-Anhalt. There’s also a Niederdeutsch dialect, which is (again, according to Wikipedia) the German spoken by the Mennonites in the US.
I don’t have specific plans for these two books yet, beyond continuing to work in series of collages. Likely I’ll start with the Madonnas first, if for no other reason that I love the dark backgrounds and how well lit the sculptures are. With some clever cropping, these images could become abstract plays of light and dark that barely, just barely suggest that something more is going on.
Stay tuned.