Until you are able to participate in our workshops at Haus der Kunst again, we will give you a few tips and ideas on how you can experience the art of Franz Erhard Walther at home. Make your own home studio, alone, in pairs or with the whole family!
At the moment, we all spend a lot of time at home. Therefore, running out of ideas is possible. We've thought of something to bring you an art studio home! You have everything you need at home. Give free rein to your artistic creation and experience together that the works of the artist Franz Erhard Walther are not only meant for looking at.
Guess - Shape with your body!
The artist Franz Erhard Walther shows huge letters made of fabric or other materials in our exhibition. They are about as big as you are and you have to look, guess and consider which letter is to be seen.
You can do that as well. What do you need?
Just your body and a carpet or a surface on which you can lie, kneel or stand.
Form a letter with your body and let the others guess which letter is meant! There are two or three of you? Then you will manage to form a short word.
2. Have a go - Hide!
The artist brings the most diverse materials directly into a relationship with the body. How can you work with an old piece of fabric, for example a bed sheet, in the same way as he did? It's about the moment of hiding, of concealment.
What do you do with your fabric to make it look like
- a tent?
- a river?
- you as a mummy?
If the sheet or fabric is very old: the artist also uses cutting techniques.
You can also use an old fabric for:
- an outline drawing of your arm, leg, fingers or your whole body.
- Cut out these shapes. Do they fit your body? How does the fabric on your arm or leg feel?
Here you can see an example of two people who have grabbed a sheet and activated it, as the artist Franz Erhard Walther does:
3. Shape it - huge letters!
Now roll your cloth or sheet on the floor into a long roll. You can also find such rolls in the exhibition in different colours.
From the long roll you can form letters that look similar to the letters of the artist.
Use the floor of your room, the living room or the hallway. Take a photo of all your different designs and send it to your friend.
Let them guess which word you mean when you send them several letters in a row !
4. Try out word pictures - how do colours work!
Cut letters from coloured paper (e.g. from old magazines) or from black paper and form words that you stick onto plain coloured paper. Franz Erhard Walther worked like this.
For example, you could glue the word river on a blue paper or the word camel on a sand-coloured paper, so the colour always matches the word. What else comes to your mind in addition to all that?
Anne Leopold is in charge of the studio at Haus der Kunst and heads the children's program for the exhibition "Franz Erhard Walther".