Artist Discovers Memorials in Everyday Objects
BY MATTHIAS SCHÜMANN
2006 | English Translation (excerpts)
Domestic Tools, Grandmother’s lipstick cases, kitchen tools, 1994.
Lipstick in bronze: scholarship holders in the Künstlerhaus Schloss Plüschow look for what is worth preserving in the ephemeral and hold on to it
At Künstlerhaus Schloss Plüschow, Jane Brucker arranged a multitude of small objects on the tables of her studio. Upon initial glance, the objects seem familiar and yet strangely alien. With closer inspection, one may notice that the source of alien feeling is that these everyday objects—buttons, makeup utensils, small boxes and more—are cast in bronze.
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The everyday objects that Jane Brucker immortalizes are part of a project called "LOST.” The installation deals with lost items in order to create an original memorial for them, allowing the objects to take on new identities. Brucker is interested in the idea behind the lost and seemingly unimportant objects, which, however, all have an aura of their own, resulting not least from the vanished context of use.
Translated from German: At the Künstlerhaus Schloss Plüschow, artist Jane Brucker from Los Angeles deals with everyday objects. Photo: Schümann.
MATTHIAS SCHÜMANN is an independent journalist with a background in German and English language and literature. He wrote about Jane Brucker during her residency at Schloss Plüschow in 2006. He lives and works in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.