Arts Thread

The inspiration for my final major project is the artist’s colony in Worpswede, that was established around the turn of the 19th century in the “Teufelsmoor” (Devil’s moor) in Lower Saxony, Germany not far from where I grew up. Prolific painters, illustrators, and poets settled in the rural village, seeking the creative and intellectual exchange with like-minded artists, creating artworks fuelled by the natural landscapes that surrounded them. I am interested in how the artists represented the local landscapes and people, oscillating between sober realism and melancholic reverie, returning to, and reproducing certain motifs repeatedly. In doing so they raised their subject into a realm of almost mythological dimension, developing a distinct subjectivity that can be described as “weltfremd”. “Weltfremdheit” describes a certain detachment from and delusion about the world and could literally be translated as foreignness to the world or even unworldliness. I am exploring this idea of the romanticisation and idealisation of nature as a form of escapism in times of great uncertainty and political tensions- the complete devotion to the idea of capturing the idyl. Through analogue photography I am carefully curating and producing primary imagery, that explores how I myself, can capture a highly idealised and distorted version of my immediate surroundings, blending familiar interior spaces with the natural world outside. Inspired by the dark and oily peat that characterizes the natural landscape of Worpswede I am experimenting with incorporating leather into the knitting as both embellishment and structural support. This material-led process of experimentation should eventually lead to a product outcome situated within the context of fashion / knitwear, drawing from my research into local forms of traditional dress and lacework.