Category Archives: Inspiration

Berlin Stages

Lline of Leaves by Imke Rust, Bochum

Golden Leaves by Imke Rust, Bochum

This week a handful of guests from all over Europe are discovering Berlin as part of a film workshop entitled “Berlin Stages” funded by the EU and organized by Frameworks e.V.. The invited guests have a chance to experience an artistic Berlin with a HD film camera, as they will be meeting and filming Berlin artists and are getting some hands-on opportunity to create their own art together with these artists. I am one of the artists that they will be visiting (tomorrow) and we will be doing land art in the Lankwitz Community Park (my current studio till I can move into a ‘real’ studio with a roof in middle of July hopefully). I am looking forward to an exciting and fun day in the park tomorrow and keeping my fingers crossed for good and dry weather. If you are in the area, come by and share in the fun!

The results of their workshop will be shown on Thursday, the 7th of July at 20h00 at the Holiday Inn City East. Everybody is cordially invited. Hope to see you there!

More info about the project can be found below (unfortunately only in German) or on www.frameworks-berlin.de

Mit „Berlin Stages“ ist dem Berliner Verein FRAMEWORKS e. V. gelungen, aus einem der begehrten EU-Fördertöpfe Geld zu werben, um Gäste zu einem Film-Workshop nach Berlin einzuladen. „Das bunte Programm und die Chance Berlin aus der künstlerischen Perspektive zu erleben hat die Teilnehmer von vorneherein beeindruckt“, weiß Thomas Nagel, 1. Vorsitzender von FRAMEWORKS e.V.. Der Verein hat sich die Themenschwerpunkte Kultur und Bildung auf die Fahne geschrieben, und so können die 14 Gäste aus Europa Anfang Juli filmend in die Kunstszene der Stadt eintauchen. Landart, Pulp-Painting, Tonstudio und Museumsbesuch stehen ebenso auf dem Programm wie Improtheater und Modenschau. „Das Projektmanagement von der Konzeption bis zur Durchführung eines solchen Workshops ist eine Klasse für sich“, lacht der 1. Vorsitzende. „Wir freuen uns mit unseren Gästen über die individuellen Erfolge und Entdeckungen“, so Nagel.

Am Donnerstag, den 7.Juli.11, zeigen die Teilnehmenden ab 20 Uhr im Foyer des Hotels Holiday Inn City East für einen Abend, was sie im Rahmen des fünftägigen Workshops in Begleitung von Berliner Künstlern und Kulturschaffenden erarbeitet haben. FRAMEWORKS e. V. und seine Gäste laden zum Austausch ein. Zu den Spielregeln von EU-finanzierten Grundtvig-Workshops gehört, dass die Teilnehmenden 18 Jahre oder älter sind und für den Workshop ihrer Wahl mindestens eine europäisches Grenze überwinden. Alle drei Jahre können Erwachsene unabhängig von ihren persönlichen Budgets so auf den Spuren des dänischen Erfinders der Volkshochschule Grundtvig reisen und im Austausch mit anderen Europäern ein Themengebiet ergründen. Die Reise-, Unterbringungs- und Workshopkosten werden voll finanziert. 2012 werden europaweit Workshops rund um den Erhalt von Gesundheit angeboten. Infos:www.frameworks-berlin.de

Für Rückfragen: Workshop-Hotline: 030/67922763

Thomas Nagel, 1. Vorsitzender FRAMEWORKS e. V. (mobil: 0151/22832281) Renate Nuppenau, 2. Vorsitzende FRAMEWORKS e. V. (mobil: 0177/8076693)

The shoes you wear… and how they are connected to my art

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The shoes you wear… and how they are connected to my art

Many years ago, back in my early student years, I had this really fun idea. Some found it a bit morbid, while others gave me worried looks… but I am used to that.

For some reason, I cannot remember exactly why, I chose to use shoes as my subject matter. Shoes as packaging of the human foot…. and packaging which eventually shapes its’ contents. Not being the biggest fan of high heeled shoes, I developed the idea of the high heeled shoe eventually shaping the foot, very similar to the old Chinese tradition of keeping women’s feet small and childlike, through tortuous means. (Ok, now I remember the reason…)

So this is how I imagined your foot would look like if you would continuously wear the common high heel shoe:

Sketch of horse-shaped foot by Imke Rust (c)

Different stages as documented in my sketchbook, eventually turning into a kind of horse-like hoof. (Mind you, horses are very elegant, so maybe nothing wrong with women striving to have feet like them?)

I even worked the idea into a life-size clay-sculpture (one of my first objects done in clay) based on one of the imaginary middle stages of the deformed foot:

And now the reason why I dug up these old sketches and the sculpture for you and why I am writing about it in my blog today: Recently I found this in the newspaper:

found in The Namibian 18 March 2011

I always like it, if I find that somebody’s thoughts, somewhere in the world, are similar to mine. Isn’t it amazing? And often with a tiny little envy I wonder why their thoughts make it to the newspapers, great art shows or into designer shops with huge price tags, and mine don’t….?

And I know the answer: because my sketches stay safely tucked away in my piles of sketch books, my sculptures are catching dust on my windowsill and my personal confidence still needs a lot of nudging and pampering and support before I can truly believe in myself and take my ideas and art work to the next level. And I also know: the idea was cool, but far away from resolved, my sketches were fun, but not great and my sculpture was a beginner’s object, which got damaged before it could ever be shown… fortunately I have come a long way since that horse foot idea.

Besides: the designer horse shoe idea is cool – but honestly: have you ever seen somebody walking around in those? Or are you secretly wishing you could afford such silly designer hooves yourself? Or know anybody who does? Naaah – me neither, but I know quite a few wonderful people, wearing comfy, good-looking shoes, who have my art on their walls or at least know somebody who does. And hey – you are reading my blog and not theirs! Da! ;o)

Thank you for your support of my art and ideas! And if you enjoyed this post or if you like my art or ideas, please subscribe to my blog and please recommend it to your friends. It would make my day!

And sometimes they tell me their names…

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And sometimes they tell me their names…

There is something begging me

To give it a life.

A face.

A form.

Something it can relate to

So that it becomes part of our human world.

Again and again they urge me.

I know they need me.

I hear them calling, begging….

But often I am too busy with less important stuff.

Or too scared, doubting if I can do them justice,

Too scared of trusting the process….

But when I allow myself to follow their calling

Opening myself up to their wishes

Having enough faith to just get going

Having enough peace to listen to their soft voices

Speaking in no language known

Trusting what I do not understand

And following even the faintest notion,

Then they guide me softly, intensely

Telling me about the exact way

In which they would like to be made manifest.

I follow their instructions as best I can.

Sometimes we are finished after a few exciting moments

Sometimes they keep me waiting forever before each new step

Occasionally it seems so simple, so obvious

At other times it is a long struggle

But in the end we always agree.

Now they have a chance to meet you

Talk to you

If you care

To listen to their soft humming.

In a deep inner dialogue

I am standing in front of them.

Amazed and intrigued.

Grateful that I could help them to come to life in our reality

Giving them a shape to be recognized by

Or a line, a colour, a texture…

However much or little they need.

I am humbled to be their midwife.

Mystified actually.

Although they tell me many of their secrets

I still cannot grasp them,

Or fully understand their complexity…

Yet they are part of me.

They tell me all I need to know

and sometimes they tell me their names…

(c)Imke Rust

(Thoughts on how my artworks come into existence)

Indigo Spider: Why Do We Have Art?

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Storm in a Teacup

Wow, it is always great to know that people like what i am doing. It is such a honour and it gives me the inspiration to continue, even when sometimes the road seems to be just a bit too treacherous (like poison honey – as Wilma Stockenstroem would have said in her book: The Expedition to the Baobab Tree. Which, by the way, is my all-time favourite book).

A blogger, called Indigo Spider, has used my artwork to illustrate a beautiful point she is making on an important subject: Why Do We Have Art? Go on, just click on it and have a look! What a pleasant surprise!

Also, since I am fairly new to the world of blogging, putting up my own webpage only last month and even got lured into using twitter, it is great to see how cool this all can work.

I must explain: in order to figure out how Twitter works (and gee, i am still not very literate with it, but please bear with me…) I looked up a friend of mine, who is using twitter and is blogging too (Andrew Robson – Check out his blog here) and looked around. He again is following the mysterious Indigo Spider. When I tried to sign up for Twitter, I seemed to have pressed on the “Get signed up to Follow Indigo Spider” instead of “Sign me up” or something like that…. So, being signed up, destiny already had set up one person to follow and I decided that maybe i should check out the blog of this stranger… even if i do not like spiders, but Indigo… well that sounds cool. Ok, Indigo Spider is no spider after all, but a real person blogging about cool stuff in a funny and warm-hearted way and was kind enough to return the favour and follow me on twitter and visit my website.

And so the circle closes…. the Indigo Spider has been looking at my webpage, liked my art and has decided to use one of the works to illustrate her point, on which i totally agree.

What a beautiful world we share and how great that we can linked up with so many great spirits!

Thank you Andrew, thank you Indigo Spider and thank you, to all my friends who follow and support me and cheer me on!