Glance at the Neighbours (Follow-up): Cultural Niches and Incentives of Participation
July – August 2024
Su-Ran Sichling’s residency took place within the framework of the exhibition “Beyond Borders. Artistic Intervention in the GDR”, curated by Kerstin Pinther.
Following the aim of creating a large textile work of art, her research focused on the textile circles as supported by state and cultural policies as part of “popular artistic creation” in the GDR. However, the circles also served the purpose of placing leisure time under state supervision and to educate participants to become functioning citizens.
Glance at the Neighbours (Follow-up) starts from an abstract pattern, translates it into a stronger colour scheme, and weaves in cut patterns for trousers in blue thread. This second layer refers to the informal work of Vietnamese contract labourers, who sewed – in an informal production and beyond state control – fashionable jeans based on “originals” by Wrangler and Levi’s and made from blue denim. With this work the artist addresses the role of migrants in “alternative” fashion stories in East Germany, connecting this informal activity to the “official” work in the textile circles.
“The starting point of my project was the research of national narratives from the German post-war period based on artefacts. At the same time, I wanted to focus on the knowledge and practices of migrants and explore how migration can change people’s ideas of socially recognised epistemologies.”
— Su-Ran Sichling
Su-Ran Sichling studied Sculpture in Dresden, Angers, and Vienna. Her work deals with practices of inclusion and exclusion, post-migrant communities, and the contrast between the natural and the artificial.