by bettina franckenberg

Artwork Description

Textile installation "Lifesteps"

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With this exhibition I continue a subject I started a long time ago – the space in Te?vikiye inspired me and makes it possible to realize it in a very serious way. It’s the theme of life in balance with the cosmos, growing and maturing at all lifesteps. The idea started with the study of matriarchal mythology - one of the first answers developed to questions about the beginning of the world and the sense of life. In mankind’s imagination of the universe the three-shaped moongoddess is a symbol of life in all it’s aspects as well as of nature in it’s cycle. The white moon sickle is the symbol of the goddess in the shape of a girl; symbol for youth, innocence and spring. The red full moon is the symbol of her as a mature woman, goddess of love and fertility, who is reigning in summer, the climax of the year. The black sickle, or new moon, symbolizes the old woman shape of the goddess; as the death goddess, she rules the underworld and takes all life with her in autumn and winter - and lets it rise again in springtime of the next year to continue the cycle of life. In my work these mythological colours - white, red and black - are both symbol carriers and design elements. The other colours and fabrics and the way of joining them together have also a certain symbolic meaning. One part of the installation is a long string which leads the visitor into and through the exhibition: it is a symbolic ‘lifethread’, made of handwoven silk and fabrics, that have long been part of my life and are full of memories, feelings and longings - joined together by hand. For me, sewing by hand is like meditation and is very important while creating the whole theme. The other installations are related to the whole project, but they are also independent artworks, inviting free association ...

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