Category Archives: Interventions & Guerilla Art

Falling in Love With the Unknown

Cherry Blossoms Close-up

On Easter morning we went for a cycle trip, when we noticed that the street was lined with thousands of pink flowers. More leaves were floating down from the pink blooming cherry trees with every new breeze. What a beautiful view!

A lady was watching from the window ( I heard that this used to be regarded as the favourite pastime of Germans for many years, before TV took over), as we stopped and started to pick up hands full of these fresh blossoms and packing them into my shopping bag. Curious about our actions, she asked, what we plan to do with it and was not too impressed when I told her that I do not know.

I really did not know. I just knew they were pretty, they were abundant and available and easy to collect. And I knew I would find something to do with it…

For two days I just did not have the time to even think about it. On the third, I knew the time is running out, as the petals will start to rot. I enjoyed watching the petals float from the trees, so I thought lots and lots of floating petals would be something fun to film.

Fortunately my husband and his daughter had a bit of time and were willing to assist me on the very vague idea and so off we went with some cameras, the buckets of petals and – in the last moment I thought of taking along our mirror as a large round shape.

The vague idea turned into a bit of frustration, as we tried to find a way of doing it and make it look good. Look good for me from an artist point of view and look good for my husband who is the expert in filming. But the beauty of creativity and working with what you have, is that if one idea does not work out, there are millions of possible alternatives. And there is always something one can do.

Maybe it is not the grandest of projects or delivers the most spectacular results, but we sure had lots of creative fun, excellent teamwork and a great time together. There might be a short video one day and there are some photos.

And we brought some excitement and beauty to the life of some people and dogs who passed by ‘a woman in a tree playing cherry blossom fairy’…

Being the cherry blossom fairy sprinkler

Alarmed dog who was not allowed to investigate

The camera crew seen from up the tree

Creative assistants having fun

View from the tree: My favourite image…

Displaced mirror with petals

Finished Work: Spring Circle

When Angels Come to Town…

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… the mice are dancing on the roofs.

Another addition to the Hotel Deco Busting Series

Intervention Against Tasteless Wall Decorations in Hotels and Holiday Apartments.
Intervention gegen geschmacklose Wanddekoration in Hotelzimmern und Ferienwohnungen.
(Part 10 /Teil 10)
Since 2010 I have secretly been slightly altering tasteless or boring hotel or holiday apartment art whenever I had the chance to.

Recently we stayed at the Marriott Hotel in Frankfurt for two nights. You might remember that last year we were here too, and I made the piece ‘Love & Devotion‘ which is still one of my absolute favourites.

This time I came better prepared for working on artworks behind glass and with an idea for a new creation in mind…

And as life has it, I was surprised that they have renovated the rooms and added new and much more colourful and modern art (and my plans became obsolete). Now they had digital prints on canvas by some anonymous artist hanging on the wall. I actually thought the new art is not bad and really loved the colours, especially the deep reds. It works well in the room – compliments to the decorator!

But hey, even a good artwork can use some fun and magic…

This way it will stand out from the probably 50 exact copies of this print in the other rooms and hopefully add some sparkle to the lives of future guests who notice the small additions.

Without further ado, here is what happened:

BEFORE PIC (Digital print by unknown artist)

AFTER Picture – can you see the differences?

Since I actually thought this artwork is not bad, I did not want to make huge differences and decided on many small interventions guided by what the images suggested to me…

Mice are dancing on the roof... how many mice do you see?

Mice are dancing on the roof… how many mice can you find?

Angels descending from the roof

Balloons and fireworks all over town

Angels in town

New title of the artwork added to the bottom of the frame

I decided to add my new title on the bottom border of the artwork. If the guest has not noticed the slight alterations he or she might see this title when lying in bed and looking at the artwork and hopefully become curious.

If you ever stay in the Marriott Hotel in Frankfurt, you might want to ask for room 37-05 and enjoy the company of angels, mice and magic… 🙂

At work 🙂

Secret Messages – Geheime Botschaften

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Sometimes books are just plain boring or badly written, but you can trust me in trying (and usually succeeding) to find a different and more positive way to look at stuff or spend time with a boring book.

Last year, during a rainy day we were confined to our holiday bungalow. A perfect day to read, and fortunately the bungalow had a shelve with some books. Unfortunately, you had the choice between really bad writing, really boring stories or really gruesome and tasteless horror novels. So I decided on a book which was both badly written, boring and a cheap paperback.

As I said: you can trust me to uncover the secret messages which it contained…

As usual I had my tippex marker handy, which helped me to reveal these messages by getting rid of all unnecessary and boring words.

That kept us happily busy and today I am excited to share them with you.

It is a German book, so I will try to give the best possible English translation of the poems.

Das gute Omen – A Good Omen

Das Aufleuchten
war ein gutes Omen…
In der Nacht
schaufelte er aus dem Loch
Eine Sonne
Irgendein
Tag
Erinnerte auch heute an eine
Letzte Nacht.

English:
The lighting-up was a good omen… In the night he dug from a hole a sun. Any day reminds us even today of a past night.

Das Kichern in den Fingerspitzen – The Giggle in the Fingertips

Aber ihre Seele drohte zu zerspringen. Eine Seele wusste, wenn ein Kichern noch sehr lebending in einem Körper hause – am liebsten in den Fingerspitzen.

English:
But her soul threatened to burst. A soul knew when a very alive giggle was still dwelling in a body –preferably in the fingertips.

Magische Zeichen – Magical Signs

Auch das Gefühl, erneut emporzuschießen – so hoch wie gleißend magische Zeichen, war eine Projektion! Und für einige Augenblicke, rasten rätselhafte Worte wie veränderte Strahlen durch sein Herz.

English:
Also the feeling to again ascend – as high as glistening magical signs, was a projection! And for some moments mysterious words raced like changed rays through his heart.

Eine graue Wolke – A Grey Cloud

Eine graue
Wolke formte
Ein heiseres Lachen.
Er musste niessen… Und dann war alles
vorbei!
Die Partikel sanken wie in Zeitlupe zu
Tode.

English:
A grey cloud formed a hoarse laugh.
He had to sneeze… and then everything was over.
The particles sank in slow-motion to death.

I hope you enjoyed these little stories or poems!

Love, Imke

Leopard Sighting in the Forest

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Once again I have swopped the warm African sun for the cold, dark and wet winter in Germany.

As a reminder of the creative fun that can be had in the cold I decided to share with you a little sketch I did on an outing to our favourite forest last year.

There were lots of frozen puddles of water and I liked how clear they were, like solid three-dimensional piece of nature art. Feeling a bit homesick I instinctively decided to add some African imagery to it. Maybe something like rock-art on ice?

I happened to have a white Tippex marker with me and started to draw a kudu. I was moderately happy with that. So a bit further away I started again, drawing a person, thinking this might turn into a traditional hunting scene.

Kudu and man on ice in the forest

The lines I drew dissolved and moved in weird ways on the ice surface, so I did not have much control, and thought adding a bow and arrow would totally mess it up. I felt awkward and unhappy with both figures. It needed something interesting to happen to save it…

Along came the leopard.

Leopard and man on ice in the forest

Interestingly the leopard started to chase the person and not the kudu, who was watching from a safe distance.

Unfortunately I cannot tell you how the story ended, as it got so cold, that I rather put on my gloves again and walked on.

Last view of the scene with the leopard chasing the man into the distance

Wishing you a happy and playful week and the perfect weather for your creative expressions!

Imke

Hotel Deco Busting: Gänseblümchen

2013 Hotel Deco Busting: Gänseblümchen A

Intervention Against Tasteless Wall Decorations in Hotels and Holiday Apartments.(Part 7)
Intervention gegen geschmacklose Wanddekoration in Hotelzimmern und Ferienwohnungen.(Teil 7)

Since 2010 I have secretly been slightly altering tasteless or boring hotel or holiday apartment art whenever I had the chance to.

: Gänseblümchen A (finished intervention)

Our bungalow on the island Poel in the Baltic ocean was small, but had a few typical holiday bungalow decoration gems on offer. The colourful ceramic plate was by far the most classy and valuable piece of ‘art’, but it was chipped on the side – probably the reason why it ended up as decoration in the bungalow.

: Gänseblümchen A (Original plate without intervention)

I decided that the alteration should be simple, easy to remove and just change the viewing experience slightly. I had some red tape and after some deliberation I decided a text element would be a great addition to the abstract and organic design of the plate. On the lawn in front of the building thousands of daisies started growing and I really like their German name: Gänseblümchen. The letters for the word were cut out from the 1cm broad tape and stuck to the plate.

: Gänseblümchen A (Detail)

Gänseblümchen A
Coloured sticky tape on found porcelain plate in a holiday bungalow on the island Poel.
approximately 45cm in diameter
July 2013

Work in progress

Disclaimer: It has become a habit of mine, to subtly alter and improve the decoration in hotels and holiday appartments when I have the opportunity. I do this with respect to the owners and future guests. I do not intend any harm and hope that it will put a smile on people’s faces who notice.

To see other similar projects, click HERE.

Coulrophobia – or how to face your fears

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Who is afraid of the clown? Apparently enough people to have an own term for this fear: Coulrophobia.

In our holiday bungalow on Poel we found a children’s porcelain savings ‚box’ in the form of a clown’s head, used as decoration. It was so ugly and trashy that we immediately named it

Gruselclown

(German for creepy clown)

Gruselclown (Before)

In a state of absolute coulrophobia, I decided that it definitely needed to get a real makeover:

Gruselclown - After our intervention

Gruselclown – After our intervention

The bookshelf had mostly thriller and horror novels on offer. With the name already set for the clown and seeing the books, it was a short way to decide to turn him into a skull. Now he had a real purpose to hold the books upright and add to the horror theme and the poor thing did not look so out-of-place anymore.

Gruselkabinett – Horror Bookshelve

In good company with books titled: In the Name of the Dead and Cemetery of the Living Dead or In a Coma.

Memories of a Tree Taking Flight

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An exploration in a forest and trying to reconnect with its magic…

Taking flight...

Memories of a Tree Taking Flight

Running through a forest of departed trees

Running through a forest of departed trees

Zwiegespräch mit einem Bieber (Dialog with a Beaver)

Zwiegespräch mit einem Bieber (Dialog with a Beaver)

Domestic Sculpture in Blue (or how to avoid doing the washing)

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Do you also regard domestic work as a nuissance and a waste-of-time, but realise that it unforunately is a necessary evil? I do. 😦

Sometimes I try to cheer myself up, by pretending it is all a creative and fun adventure. And this is the result of that happening the other day when I was supposed to do the washing:

Domestic Sculpture in Blue (or how to avoid doing the washing)

Wishing you a wonderful and creative week ahead!

Film production almost completed

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An Inifinte Scream – The Documentary: Trailer

How did you make this? Where do you get all your ideas? Why are you working with salt? And what is a Tokoloshe Trap?

Did you ever wonder about these things when you see my art? Well, this time you are lucky and soon you will get some answers.

Documenting SubRosa IRust (c)

We have made a documentary film about my latest land art project ‘…and I sensed and infinite scream passing through the Namib’. It gives you a great behind-the-scene glimpse into the project and an insight how I work and think.

You can join me in the exciting journey from the making of the artworks, the thoughts behind them, the challenges along the way and finally the exhibition. It is a personal portrait as much as a film about the art and its role in society.

Until we can finally publicly release the film, you can already view the trailer and check out the film’s webpage. It will give you a taste of what to expect in the full documentary once it is released. Do not forget to sign up for the blog to find out when and where it will be screened. (I will also keep you updated here.)

A great thank you, to filmmaker and my partner Steffen Holzkamp for the excellent work and the super-cool film. I am really looking forward to sharing the full film with everybody soon.

Click HERE to view the trailer (1:36min)

Making the barbed wire stems for the roses © Imke Rust

Pimping a framed calendar photo

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Intervention Against Tasteless Wall Decorations in Hotels and Holiday Apartments.(Part 5)

Cutting out a landscape photo from a calendar and framing it in a cheap frame seems to be a general habit all over the world. Do people really think that is cool? Ok, it is cheap and at least usually calendar photos usually show an average pretty landscape. But still, as my art lecturer would say: “Why, Larry? Why?”

Our bungalow on the island Poel in the Baltic ocean was small, but had a few typical holiday bungalow decoration gems on offer. This faded landscape of the area was one of it and in urgent need of improvement.

Found calendar photo or the BEFORE pic

I decided to pimp the calendar image with some ‘real’ painting and a view which looks slightly more exciting and challenging. On the previous day I photographed an old man going for a swim in the shallow water and decided to add him to the idyllic island landscape.

AFTER: The Great Bather final pic ©ImkeRust

While painting, I had all kinds of ideas for the title, envisioning the man to be a mythical, cow eating giant responsible for the mysterious disappearance of the cows. Or a ghost who only appears at certain times in the water and stares at the cows before submerging in the sea again. Or just the friendly village eldest who has been going for a swim every day without fail for the past 28 years….

But I guess I leave the stories for the viewers who will hopefully notice something strange in this picture and start wondering.

The Great Bather back on the wall©ImkeRusts

Did you like this? You can view more similar actions on my webpage under Interventions. I will be posting future deco busting actions on my blog, so be sure to sign up to receive notifications of updates via email. 🙂