Glimpses into Unseen Places Creating Non-traditional Books

Today i attended the first session of the two day workshop of Glimpses into Unseen Places Creating Non-traditional Books at the Hirshhorn Gallery. Being a teen workshop, I was surrounded by middle schoolers but I didn't mind so much because the workshop was awesome. Because my concentration is in printmaking is was interesting to speak about the promoted exhibit of Anselm Kiefer with papermaker, Gretchen Schermerhorn.

We were introduced to papermaking terms and techniques. We used abaca, cotton, and flax to create paper with a deckle and mould, along with the organic items that we brought with us such as flowers, rice, coffee grounds, loose leaf tea bags, etc.

Next week, we'll be binding the papers together and creating personal collages influenced by Anselm Kiefer's exhibit, Heaven and Earth.
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"I'm interesting in reconstructing symbols. It's about connecting with an older knowledge and trying to discover continuities in why we serach for heaven."
-Anselm Kiefer



Heaven and earth. Hope and skepticism. Creation and destruction. These dualities suggest the ways in which they overlap and merge with one another. This sense of layering is essential to an understanding of Kiefer's art as a whole. His materials, a blend of traditional media and natural elements, not only evoke the potential and limitations of transformation, but are as symbolically charged as his imagery. Earth, ash, dried plants, clay become allussions to history, mythology, relgion and art.