Tag Archives: intervention

Pimping a framed calendar photo

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

The Great Bather Detail View ©ImkeRust

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.

Making of The Great Bather ©ImkeRust

The Great Bather back on the wall©ImkeRust

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. 🙂

Intervention Against Tasteless Wall Decorations in Hotels and Holiday Apartments.(Part 2)

1 Reply

In a previous blog post (A Confession) I have confessed to my urge to improve boring or ugly wall decorations in hotels or holiday apartments. Today I am sharing another similar intervention with you, before I am leaving for a short holiday at the Baltic Sea. And who knows, maybe our bungalow there is also in need of some artistic intervention? If so, you will find out about it on my blog – so, if you have not already done it, subscribe to my blog to receive notifications when I post something new.

Intervention Against Tasteless Wall Decorations in Hotels and Holiday Apartments.(Part 2)
Intervention gegen geschmacklose Wanddekoration in Hotelzimmern und Ferienwohnungen.(Teil 2)

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

Title: Appearance of a Woman

Date: July 2012, Location: a holiday apartment somewhere in Vítkovice, Czech Republic.
Medium: Acrylic and pen on found decorative print on wood

: The ‘Before’ picture of a commercial flower print as found in the holiday apartment

The holiday apartment had two exactly the same decorative commercial art prints in the bedrooms. How thoughtless and boring is that? With apologies to the original artist, I thought at least one should be more exciting than just flowers and squares. So this is how it looks now:

: Altered artwork

: Busy with letting the woman appear on the flower print.

: View of the room with the altered artwork

: Explanation and apology text which I have added to the back of the work – just in case somebody thinks of looking there.

Text added by me on the back of the artwork:

Congratulations!

You have noticed that this decoration is not your average horror experience of cheap so-called art prints, but a more stimulating and interesting mutation thereof. Such bad and soulless pictures cause an allergic reaction with me, which manifests in colours, lines and picturesque alterations.

I hope you can understand and forgive me and that you can find joy and a fresh curiosity and appreciation for true creativity and real thought-provoking , interesting and exciting original art.

Yours sincerely, Imke Rust

You Are Wonderful

8 Replies

We are living in on the top floor of a multistory building, which means we are often using the elevator and spend the longest time in it. Just like the building, the elevator is neither pretty, nor very welcoming. I guess, in general elevators are usually not the nicest places.

Often on my way up or down, I am thinking of how the elevator is actually like a life-vein of the building, moving tenants and their guests up and down. And it is a central, small space which almost all occupants share and use on a regular basis. It is a pity that it is so bland and uninspiring.

Inside view of our elevator, once you enter

I decided to change that…

The door is busy closing…

The door is completely closed, revealing the full message

Du (ja – DU!) bist wunderbar! ( You (yes- YOU) are wonderful! )

As usual I made sure that my intervention is not permanent or damaging somebody else’s property and it can easily be removed 😉

A temporary intervention in a public space by Imke Rust.
Digital print on photo paper and sticky tape.

A Confession

16 Replies

I have a confession to make.
It involves hotel rooms, bad art and a developing compulsive (dis)order.

It started about 2 years ago. In a holiday bungalow in northern Germany…
I realized that every time I looked at the wall and the poor excuse-of-an-artwork hanging there, I became nauseous and my rebel soul escaped from its chains. It does not happen very often, but it has since become a serious addiction with a recognizable pattern.

Have you ever noticed the crap they hang on the walls in a room which, for a brief amount of time, is supposed to be your comfortable home away from home? A room which you usually pay a substantial amount of money for? And in my case, this money is hard-earned by producing and selling enough good art to be able to afford an occasional weekend away.

Ok, you might have not noticed. But that shall be forgiven, because usually it is so bland or so bad, that you might not even notice or remember it. But I started to feel really insulted. Usually the art they hang looks cheaper and more tasteless than the carefully selected rubbish bin in the same room.

Anyway. I just returned from a brief visit to Frankfurt. I was invited to attend the glamorous Live Entertainment Awards 2013 and accommodated in a nearby fancy hotel.

There it happened again.
Recognizing the pattern, I thought this time I rather confess straight away.

Our room on the 32^nd floor was decorated with a digital print of some kind of old engraving, possibly showing an early view of Frankfurt. (There was no signature or any other information provided to trace the artwork to its original creator.) It was paced behind glass in a big golden frame and securely fastened to the wall with screws. Yes, screwed, as if the hotel worries that somebody will want to steal it?!? Ok, granted, the white pass-partout might have some kind of value on the recycling market for some poor artist…

The decoration in the hotel room… (or the “Before” picture)

I had to do something. Usually I never go anywhere without a small selection of essential art materials and tools, but this time I just grabbed a few pens and my sketchbook, not expecting much free time for creative adventures. Limitations often tickle me to become even more creative and soon I had a rough plan, fitting my ethics of doing as little harm as possible.

The unsuspecting hotel staff agreed to lend me a pair of scissors large enough to cut creative designs into the curtains. The hotel also provided me with a complimentary copy of a glossy magazine. Lastly I got a piece of double-sided tape from the team preparing the Frankfurt Festhalle for the LEA awards. Addicts like me, just know how to get their fix 😉

I am still not ready for the ‘show and tell’ part – please bear with me, this is not an easy confession, but I promise, it is serious fun.

Looking out of our window, we had a great view of Frankfurt am Main with its huge skyscrapers housing several large financial institutions and banks. Frankfurt a.M. is known as the financial hub of Germany, I am told. If there is something that gives me an even worse allergic reaction than bad art, it is the whole financial industry with their dubious systems and the way they rule the world.

Frankfurt am Main morning skyline view from our room

With the banks in the back of my mind (even literally when I turned around from the window and looked at the artwork in our room), a magazine at hand, scissors and tape I was ready to spend the afternoon happily in our room. Much better than shopping or sight-seeing!

And now I let the pictures tell the rest:

Selecting pictures from the magazine – trying to find images that suit the original artwork in size and which add some thought-provoking content. Glad I found this one in a mag that mostly features fashion

Using the huge scissors to cut out the tiny figures was not an easy task

The images were backed with double-sided tape

and then carefully positioned and stuck onto the glass. That way, it can easily be removed and I will hopefully not have to face a ‘Destruction of private property’ charge.

And the results:

Hotel deco-busting collage ‘Love and Devotion’ by Imke Rust (or the “After” picture)

Limited by the available images, materials and the fact that the decorative ‘artwork’ was behind glass and fastened to the wall, this was a great challenge, but I really like the result and think it worked out perfectly. (Thank you, dear universe, for always providing me with exactly what I need! 😉 )

Detail: centre of image with title of art work. Because the images are stuck onto the glass, they cast a shadow and the whole artwork gets a nice three-dimensional feel.

Only two images really worked for me with this picture, considering the size, colours etc., so I ended up with Chinese military procession and some models dressed in futuristic, Asian inspired fashion. While the soldiers looked quite informal, the models posed in an almost threatening and powerful way. So this work seemed to be headed into the direction of a subtle confrontation or battle. Possibly between the female and male powers? Or Europe and Asia? I was a bit apprehensive about displaying a battle or aggression, so I wanted to add some relief to this tense situation.

Detail of the deco-busting collage ‘Love and Devotion’ © Imke Rust

I found a speech-bubble with the text “We don’t want taxpayers having to save banks” and thought, that this statement suits my view, it would be a perfect cause for these ladies to protect and it would give the artwork a comic feel, making it a bit ‘lighter’, but still with a serious message. I also decided to give the work a title and place it in the middle of the pass-partout, like it was often done with old prints. From the limited text phrases available “Love and Devotion” seemed to be a perfect choice.

Detail of the deco-busting collage ‘Love and Devotion’ © Imke Rust

I then decided this should be a dialogue. If the female part is allowed to say something, then the male part will also get a voice. I found a tiny empty speech bubble in the hotel brochure and drew a heart in it and placed it above a smiling soldier…

And some more dialogue happens when you open the curtains and can see Frankfurt’s skyline with the building of the Deutsche Bank (amongst others) reflected on the image…

Reflections of the modern Frankfurt skyline on the altered image

Finally the truth is out…

I love adding fun and value to the ‘artworks’ and decoration in hotel rooms or holiday apartments, and have done so on several occasions. I wish I could see the faces of the people who notice the interventions and know what they are thinking. I also wish I knew how long it takes the hotel staff to recognize the interventions and see what they decide to do about it. Hopefully it will put a smile on some people’s faces!

I plan to share some of my previous similar interventions with you too and hope that I can visit many more hotels or holiday apartments in the near future.

Frozen Easter Eggs

2 Replies

If you can’t beat them, join them…

I guess that applies to the weather too. If you cannot beat the cold – play along.

So that is what I did for Easter. As I already mentioned in my previous Easter post, I am not really into the whole Easter thing and much to some people’s despair I only ever follow rituals or parts of them, which seem like real fun to me, when I am in the mood for it or if they make some other kind of sense to me (and that does not always need to be the rational kind of sense 😉 ) .

Since we were invited for an Easter dinner and I recently read something about freezing water in balloons, I decided to create some frozen Easter eggs, suitable as an ephemeral gift for the host’s garden and the icy cold weather.

The Process

I filled water into balloons and hung them in the freezer. After the water was frozen, I peeled off the balloon.

Now I boiled some beetroot peels (the rest of the root was turned into a yummy raw salad) to get a natural and environmentally friendly colour for the red egg. Only at this stage I remembered to take photographs of the process. I used commercial food colouring for the other two eggs as I ran out of time for being more creative in making my own colours.

Boiled beetroot peels create a lovely red colour…

…which I used to paint the frozen ice/egg

The eggs were stored in the freezer and then transported in a padded cool-box to our dinner hosts.

Easter eggs stored safely in the freezer

The Result:

Then the Easter bunny (i.e. me) could not decide, where to place the eggs, to get the best visibility – these eggs were not made for hiding after all. After trying the pretty white snow blanket of the back yard, I decided it is best to place them right in view of the front door, even if there was not an ‘all white’ dense snow covering as I had wished for.But they would be in plain view of everybody leaving or entering the house.

The Easter eggs in their full glory

Easter Eggs viewed from the top

Much to my joy, they were well received…. 🙂 And we were treated to a delicious meal and lovely evening.

The bunny left some frozen Easter eggs at the front door…

And if they have not melted, they might still be there today…

Wishing you a great remainder of the week!

Hello Summer

6 Replies

Hello summer – where are you?

On Friday this was the view out of my studio:

View from my studio – it is snowing…

So I decided to cut a stencil to welcome the summer… (as you can see, I am still struggling with the weather here in Berlin…)

Stencil – Hallo Sommer ©ImkeRust

Just to make sure that the welcoming note will be understood in Germany, I have used proper German, even though I liked “Hello Summer” better. Guess I am still more comfortable thinking in English…

And Sunday my boyfriend and I have planned to get out of the city and drive to a tiny forest on a tiny hill which we have discovered some time ago, the Lindenberg. I love these outings, as I can always find something fun to do, to interrupt the long walks my boyfriend loves to take. As you can gather, I am not that fond of endless walks…

So here are some photos of what happened when we were not walking:

Hallo Sommer (Dark soil on snow) © Imke Rust

I took along the stencil and decided I wanted to use eco-friendly materials. Fortunately I found some really dark earth from mole heaps close by to make this.

Hallo Sommer (Dark soil on wood) © Imke Rust

Trying out the stencil on a dead tree, which was more difficult because of the round shape…

I brought some Curcuma powder along from home, just in case I would not find any other suitable materials to use, and because of the warm yellow colour. So I had to try that out too. I was not all that happy with the result. Unfortunately the wind had picked up a lot making it difficult to pour the powder without spilling over the edges. The sieve which I used to add the dark soil in the previous pictures also did not work for this one, as the powder was to fine… and so to much powder plopped down… Anyway, I still like the warm colour 🙂

Hallo Sommer (Curcuma on snow) © Imke Rust

And finally, a picture of me taking pictures of another work, which I hope to share at another time. Hint: I am the one hiding beneath all those layers of clothes…

Me, packed warmly, taking photographs © Imke Rust

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Secret ingredients for making rain…

4 Replies

Ok, I have decided to share my secret list of ingredients for making rain with you 🙂 .

When we wish to manifest a different reality in our lives, we must firstly set a clear intention. Then we need to put the energy closest linked to that state into a creative act – such as art, music, dance or a ritual. Add a huge bucket of trust and stir in hands-full of patience. Regularly add generous amounts of gratitude and sprinkle with as much fun and creativity as you can find. Decorate with light-heartedness and celebration.

As you might have guessed, this is an update on my last post “Waiting for rain” and you are probably curious to hear if my little rainmaker was successful.

After I made my ‘little rainmaker’ and writing about it in my last post, nothing much happened for a few days. And I started to get doubts. Maybe the rainmaker was too small? Or maybe the stone which I selected, was wrong – after all, it came from the Namib desert, a place which seldom sees rain. Maybe it just had forgotten the feeling of rain? So just to be absolutely sure, I decided to remind the stone and myself of the feeling of water, by making it stand in water, and refilling the water every day, saying my thanks to nature.

There was some rain on the 4th of February, but not much. Just enough that I decided to re-draw the cloud image and rain drops on the stone, as the image has been washed away a little bit. Through doing so, I reaffirmed my gratitude for every little drop of rain that we are getting.

All the time I regularly thought about our believes and superstitions surrounding rain. As kids we were told that eating up your food would allow it to rain and I still say that to friends when they are over for dinner. In Namibia we also say that you must not run to take down the washing from the line, when the first drops fall, as this will surely chase away the rain…

So when the first drops appeared I rather took a picture of my washing and the drops, happy about every little bit of moisture and not worry about it getting wet. Quietly celebrating each one of the few drops which our sky managed to squeeze out of the promising clouds. Even if once again, the drops stopped coming soon after they started… (Note to self: the washing believe does not seem to hold water in either a literal or figurative way. 😉 )

Raindrops on my washing

First raindrops on the new rainmaker (7 Feb)

On my birthday, the 7th of February, maybe as a special birthday gift, we had the first real rain. (Another note to self: it really takes a lot of patience, trust and many little prayers of thanks to get it to rain, but eventually it will rain.)

Ok, I acknowledge that I hoped the little rainmaker would bring lots of rain within two or three days. But maybe I just need more practice and more faith. And at least making and nurturing the little rainmaker gave me a sense of being proactive and positive in a time, when many people are starting to be talking about the imminent drought that we might be facing this year with a doomsday face and spreading the fear.

I learned that even if we can (and should be able to) influence reality with the right intentions and actions a little bit nature still has a way of following its own rhythms, but it might also be reminding us of some valuable lessons. We have been blessed with several really good rainy seasons and we have started to take water for granted again. We have wasted water, used it without being conscious about our actions or without remembering how very blessed we are and saying thanks.

And even if my little rainmaker has not yet brought Namibia or my garden the wonderful rains which I hoped for, I still have faith that we will also survive this year and this season.And that the rain might still come…

Last, but not least the little rainmaker provided me with regular joy watching the wild animals coming to drink from my installation. In the very first picture is a wild yellow mongoose and below is a red-eyed bird. I do not know the scientific name of the bird, but I happen to know this bird personally, as I had the pleasure to share its life for the past few months. She and her husband have nested in my garden and I could watch them raise their young chick, teaching it to fly and celebrate life.

Red-eyed bird drinking from the rainmaker installation

Waiting in an ashtray…

2 Replies

Everyday waiting for the bus or the S-Bahn I witness one of the most intriguing phenomena: the careless-flipping-away-of-cigarette-buds.

In most smokers minds’ cigarette buds do not seem to be classified as litter. No, I do not hate smokers, I just do not understand this part of their actions (and yes, I do feel a bit offended by it). Has it ever occurred to you that cigarette buds are litter and belong into a bin or ashtray and not on the public floor?

It is not as if the person looks around for a rubbish bin, then cannot find one or thinks it’s too far to walk to, and then decides to rather drop it on the floor. It seems to be a totally unconscious act. Maybe somebody can explain this to me? It is a mystery to me. I assume, you do not just drop the buds on your floor at home – or do you?

I salute the few smokers who carry a portable ashtray and use it to store their ash and buds or those who are conscious enough to make use of public rubbish bins.

As I found this so intriguing, I thought I have a bit of my own fun:

Smoke Victims

Drawing

Smoke Victims (close up)

In search of elves and fairies and green, green grass

3 Replies

Yellow Heart - Yellow flowers and moss on a rock

As a Namibian desert girl I recently had an interesting and exciting time in the very green and lush mountains of South Tyrol. All the dense vegetation was amazing, the little mountain creeks with their clear water fascinating and I especially fell in love with the soft moss growing everywhere. I was reminded of childhood stories of dwarfs, fairies and elves living in the forests and sleeping on beds of moss, carrying sweet forest berries as decoration and giggling under red and white mushrooms… as a child I did not know these things and wonderful places and my imagination ran wild. Now I walked through such magical forests in awe and wonder like a little child, eating some forest strawberries and making some art. I did not see any elves or red-capped dwarfs, but still I had lots of fun with the invisible spirits of nature and art.

Ok, I do not want to bore you with long stories, but rather just share some pictures of my small interventions in nature. So, here they are:

Location: Oberperflhof, approximately 1,500m above sea level, close to Katharinaberg / Monte Santa Caterina – in the Schnalsvalley (Val Senales), Italy.

Date: July 2011