A friend just shared this video with me, about one of my favorite fiber artists (yep I said it!), Anselm Kiefer. I love the way Kiefer hacks at his straw paintings with a machete. He says,
“It’s always important to have some edge between order and chaos. If you do too much order, it’s finished, it’s not good. If it’s too much chaos you cannot work anymore, it’s too much ideas and things.
You have to find a way between order and disorder.”
German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer discusses the meanings behind some of his favorite materials, including straw, cow manure, and lead. He describes how he strives for fluidity and malleability in his work, though conservation can be a challenge.
And also:
“I was always interested not to use color as illusion but as a material that means something to me.”
The scale, the rawness, the visceral quality of his work is so inspiring to me.
PS - Bonus quote:
"What interests me is the transformation, not the monument. I don't construct ruins, but I feel
ruins are moments when things show themselves. A ruin is not a catastrophe. It is the moment when things can start again.“