Artist Diane Meyer has spent the last several years meditating on the Berlin Wall and the physical and visual divisions between, and within, cultures. In her series Berlin, Meyer embroiders 43 photographs with meticulous stitches that overlay pedestrians, walls, and forests. Each embroidered area represents the former wall, which would have bisected or blocked the views now seen in Meyer’s photographs.
The project is part of Meyer’s broader practice of “combining a traditional, analogue process with the visual language of digital imaging,” the artist tells Colossal. “At one point, I was experimenting with large landscape images using thousands of little tiny squares of carpet remnants which functioned as pixels. I think these early experiments ultimately led me to the work that I am doing now.” Meyer explains that for the Berlin series, she sought to evoke how the wall continues to exude a felt presence in the city, despite having been removed decades ago.
I started thinking about the relationship between forgetting and digital file corruption, particularly given how photographs are strongly tied to and ultimately often replace memory. By re-inserting the Berlin Wall through embroidery, a pixelated view of what is behind the wall is seen, creating the effect of an almost ghost-like trace in the landscape.
“Forest Border Area Near Hohen Neuendorf”
Meyer shares with Colossal that the materials of her artistic practice have evolved over time, shifting from straight photography to more multimedia approaches, but that she has consistently returned to some core concepts. “My work has long been defined by explorations into the physical, social, and psychological qualities that characterize place,” says Meyer, shifting genre and medium depending on the conceptual framework she is working within.
Her current undertaking is Reunion, a series of elementary school class pictures from the 1970s, which Meyer explains is an outgrowth of a previous project centered around family photographs. With Reunion, the artist seeks to focus on body language by obscuring the normal focal point of facial features with stitched interventions. “I am interested in exploring these details to reveal not only the relationships between the various figures, but also how, even at a very young age, children were taught and instructed to pose in particular ways, often based on gender,” Meyer tells Colossal.
Marking 30 years since the fall of the wall, Berlin is on view through January 10, 2020, at Klompching Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. See more of Meyer’s current work on Instagram and explore the artist’s archive on her website. (via This Isn’t Happiness)
“Former Guard Tower Off Puschkinallee”
“Checkpoint Charlie”
“Basketball Court Park an Nordbahnhof”
“Potsdamer Platz”
“Treehouse Former Wall Area Frohnau”
“Stairs Bosebrucke”
“Former Wall Area Landwehrkanal”
“Greibnitzsee”
