Susanne Thiemann

 

Susanne Thiemann opened her workshop for basketry 35 years ago in Munich after gaining her masters certificate as a basket maker. The workshop only a few years later became the studio for her first sculptures and objects. The material was and still is recycled goods. By chance, Susanne discovered a large stock of colourful plastic tubes that were used in the 1960s and 1970s for the production of then hard-edge, modern chairs and lounges. The easy plasticity and flexibility of the tubes was ideal for weaving and the colours fascinated her: warm ochre, sky blue, bright yellow and rich cherry red. This fascinating interplay of industrial materials and traditional craft techniques is a characteristic that runs like a thread through her artistic work to this day.” – Marion Von Schabrowsky

“By working around and weaving in circles, Susanne has given the sub-constructions a skin of thin lines. The crimping gives the sculptures mobility and life. Strange and tender creatures made of plastic, stretching up in a desperate and peculiar way or collapsing limply.”

“Susanne also works with the rigid and floating, with the self-contained and the tattered. Her sculptures relate to each other and to the room. Sometimes standing in the middle of it, sometimes lying around in a corner as a shimmering, loudly coloured soft machine, or dangling down from the ceiling like stockings. Whether alone or in a group, they always give the impression that opposites attract: affection meets rejection – disorder meets order – light meets strong – fake meets reality – cheeriness meets seriousness – beauty meets the beast.” – Susanne Robbert

Learn more at her website, Susanne Thiemann
Photos by Achim Schäfer