Art History & Visual Material Culture webinar - LEENA CRASEMANN (University of Hamburg): "Environmental fabrics. On the textile reconfiguration of contemporary spaces"

The hybridity of textiles makes it inherently difficult to grasp them as a single entity or make generalisations about them; while they form the basis of every culture, they can only be described as an “endlessly adaptable form” (T’ai Smith). My talk deals with textile structures that configure space and spatiality in innovative ways – as art installations on the one hand and as urban spatial structures on the other hand. I assume a reciprocal relationship between these fields, while the primacy of the visual is eschewed in favour of a broader consideration of the categories of materiality and spatiality. Ephemeral, translucent and sometimes temporary spatial structures have incorporated the haptic qualities of the textile medium. I will supplement an iconological approach in order to explore the material-based ‘obstinacy’ (Eigensinn) of textile spaces.

About the speaker

Studies of art history and theatre studies in Berlin and Pisa. 2008 to 2010 research assistant of Prof. Dr. Klaus Krüger at the Research Centre Sfb 447 Cultures of Performativity, Freie Universität Berlin. Phd 2012, Freie Universität Berlin. 2012 to 2014 research assistant of Prof. Dr Peter Geimer at the Research Centre Sfb 626 Aesthetic Experience and the Dissolution of Artistic Limits, FU Berlin. 2014 to 2015 6-month fellowship at the IKKM – Internationales Kolleg für Kulturtechnikforschung und Medienphilosophie, Bauhaus-University Weimar. 2015 to 2018 research assistant at the Department of Art History, University of Hamburg and in winter 2017/18 Interim Professorship covering for Prof. Dr. Margit Kern. Since 2018 Research Associate at the Research Association Bilderfahrzeuge. Aby Warburg’s Legacy and the Future of Iconology, Warburg-Haus Hamburg. She edited the volumes Um/Ordnungen. Fotografische Menschenbilder zwischen Konstruktion und Destruktion, Munich 2010 and Re-Inszenierte Fotografie, Munich 2011. Recently published: “Textile Rekonfigurationen des Spinnennetzes: Zum Verhältnis von Form und Material in Stoffmustern und Fadeninstallationen Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts”, in: Burcu Dogramarci (ed.): Textile Moderne, Vienna et al. 2019. Forthcoming: Unmarkierte Sichtbarkeit? Weiße Identitäten in der zeitgenössischen künstlerischen Fotografie, Munich 2021.