What is the peace?
Textile wall hangings | 2013
Funded by the Equal Opportunity: Scholarship for Female Artists and Designers
»What is the peace?« is the title of the practical part of Kerstin Bruchhäuser’s dissertation. It consists of sixteen wall hangings in the form of textiles, e.g. banners, flags and pennants. The different-sized pieces are exclusively made out of white household textiles and refer to the »white flag« as a symbol of peace. The old bedsheets, table clothes, etc. feature texts with varying degrees of legibility depending on their size and contrast. They describe relatively normal situations of daily life which – due to their imaginative scope – interact with the memories and experiences of the viewer. The result is the interplay between the viewer’s present and past, as well as the history of the textile that can be seen in its spots, tears and previous attempts to clean and repair them.
The work explores the relationship between the individual and society and the ways in which collective knowledge and memory manifest themselves. The title refers to the »peace flag«, as expressed through the monochromy of the works, and also plays on the homonyms »peace« and »piece«. The word »piece« is frequently used to refer to artworks and, hence, should also evoke the question in the viewer’s mind: »What is the piece about?«