- Verena Sieber-Fuchs is a master at crocheting her everyday life. She furiously collects everything around her, using it to speak about pleasure, sorrows, or politics
- It’s a game with all kinds of materials, and no precious ones to make the finished product precious
- We spoke to the Swiss maker on the occasion of her solo exhibition, The Year of the Carnation, held at Galeria Tereza Seabra, in Lisbon, Portugal, October 25–November 30, 2024
Marta Costa Reis: Do you see yourself as a jewelry artist or as a textile artist? Is there even a difference between these two crafts in the way you consider your work? What makes one work a piece of jewelry while another is a textile work?
Verena Sieber-Fuchs: The boundaries are fluid, so I find myself unable to take a clear position here. Overall, I believe that this distinction, if it is meaningful and desirable, should be made by the observer.
The title of your exhibition at Galeria Tereza Seabra is The Year of the Carnation, which seems to refer to the Carnation Revolution that happened in Portugal in 1974 and brought democracy to the country. How is it that you, coming from Switzerland, chose this name and this theme?
Verena Sieber-Fuchs: On the occasion of Tereza’s invitation to exhibit in her gallery during the year of the 50th anniversary of the Portuguese Carnation Revolution, I spontaneously associated it with the red carnation worn during May Day demonstrations as a symbol of international solidarity, resistance, and freedom—a symbol that experienced a moving renaissance on April 25, 1974, in Portugal.
During May Day demonstrations here, the police use rubber bullets against rioting fringe groups, as they did extensively during the youth riots of the 1980s. So the link was clear to me: Red carnations and rubber bullets here, and, far more significantly there in Portugal, deadly weapons silenced by red carnations placed in rifle barrels. In both cases, however, a glimmer of hope in today’s world of raging wars!
The pieces you are showing are very impressive. There are many works in this show and it’s quite a sight to have them all in the same space. They have quite an ethereal quality. Some seem to be almost immaterial, but at the same they are very sensuous, sensual even. One can clearly imagine them embracing the body and in that moment becoming very corporeal.
Verena Sieber-Fuchs: Undermining or outsmarting the unfortunate dichotomy of body and mind, materiality and immateriality, is the ultimate discipline of any art. If I have succeeded in this even slightly, it would make me happy.
Another element that is very present in your work is the use of recycled materials. How did this come to be? I imagine the collection, organization, and selection of these materials is a very important part of the process, besides the making itself.
Verena Sieber-Fuchs: For me, an inexhaustible source of inspiration is the continuation and reuse of disposable items—collecting them, holding them, and entrusting them to the intelligence of the hands in a kind of trance, thus transforming them into another state of being, transferring them from their apparent worthlessness to value.
Some of these materials are organic—onion or garlic skins, for example. Others, such as aluminum foil, may last “forever.” Do you think about it in these terms? Does the permanence or impermanence of the work concern you?
Verena Sieber-Fuchs: No, I do not think about this. Everything originates from the same matrix and is directed toward the same goal: creating form from a shapeless mass, whether from pig bladders, film sheets, garlic peels, rubber bullets, butcher paper, paper clips, or blister packs that held medication.
We can also see this choice of material as funny and joyful. That’s another very strong impression in your pieces: They are joyful and even humoristic. Not just the big necklaces with unusual materials, but the tiny hats, the mushroom objects. Is that an important feature for you?
Verena Sieber-Fuchs: If humor is the moisture that lends vibrancy and shimmer to everything dry and dusty, then it is undoubtedly an important element for me.
You have a long history with Galeria Tereza Seabra, and it’s not that often that we can see your work internationally in galleries (although it is very present in museums). What is important for you in your relationship with a gallery?
Verena Sieber-Fuchs: While I was able to exhibit repeatedly in galleries (in NYC, Washington, DC, Quebec, London, Edinburgh, Paris, Cologne, Munich, Amsterdam, Gothenburg) for a long time, this has become rarer, partly because many galleries have closed, gallery owners have passed away, and I have grown older.
How do you feel about the display of this exhibition at Galeria Tereza Seabra?
Verena Sieber-Fuchs: The presentation at Galeria Tereza Seabra is excellent, and I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank Tereza and her entire team—Catarina, Kathi, and Felix Menziger—for this.
Related: Read an interview with Tereza Seabra, the owner and curator of the gallery that showed The Year of the Carnation, here.
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