SPATIAL AWARENESS

Her materials are horse hair and needles, seeds and dog hair, burdocks that stick together, and grass stalks. Her subjects are space and the emptiness in between. Of tiny dimensions, lyrical in their sensuality: these are the sculptures of the German artist Christiane Löhr.

Löhr began to observe all the tiny objects created by nature whilst grooming her horse and studying at the Art Academy Düsseldorf. She takes these natural objects and combines them to produce structures and spaces reminiscent of nature and architecture. They hold together only by their own natural properties, ingenuity and patience. She works in a special microcosm; fragile, light, calm, but with a strong sensuality…

The artist grew up in Koblenz, in the Rhine Valley, together with her horse that she first shared with her three sisters, until it became hers alone. At the age of 18 she had won its pregnant mother by a tombola bingo, and thus shared the creature’s life from its birth to its death 24 years later. She collected and created objects that she found whilst with her horse: horse hair, hay, and seeds…

Originally Christiane never thought of becoming an artist. She studied archeological subjects and later Art Education at the Universities of Bonn and Mainz, until she changed to the infamous Kunstakademie (Academy of Art) in Düsseldorf. In this creative atmosphere, with inspiring professors like Jannis Kounellis and Joseph Beuys, she realised step by step that her work may be regarded as art. ‘In the beginning I asked myself what it was that I was doing. Eventually, it was called art – so I went with that.’

To read this article by Dr Uta-Christiane Bergemann in full, order your copy of Selvedge issue 70 here.