Uta Kreher

Embroidery paper art, set design, interior design

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Vom Stand der  Dinge – Elfte Tempelhofer  Kunstausstellung – Galerie im Tempelhof Museum – Berlin – Germany
18.Kunst-offen-in-Sachsen – Alter Stickerei – Grünbach im Vogtland – Sachsen – Germany
Faces  – Lite-Haus Galerie – Berlin Neukölln – Germany

SET DESIGN – Costume DESIGN & COLLABORATIVE SOCIAL ART WORK
2021 – 2002                
Wie Es Uns Gefällt – Kollektiv Klub KP – Bildungsmarkt – Berlin  – Germany
Das Goldene Vlies – Kollektiv Klub KP – Bildungsmarkt – Berlin  – Germany
Davongekommen – Kollektiv Klub KP – Bildungsmarkt – Berlin  – Germany
Blumfeld – Kollektiv Klub KP –  Bildungsmarkt – Berlin  – Germany
Felix Krull – Kleines Theater  am  Südwestkorso – Berlin – Germany                       
TülliKnülliFülli  – Werkstattbühne – Stadttheater Konstanz – Konstanz  – Germany
Der Geizige – Großes Haus – Stadttheater Trier – Trier – Germany 
Die Bibel – Stadttheater Konstanz – Germany
Elling – Studio Theater Trier – Germany
Norway.today – Studio Theater Trier – Germany

URBAN ART & INSTALLATION

2010                          
Hier und Dort – Temporary art  installation –  Staatsoper Unter Den Linden –  Berlin – Germany

2002
Napoleon war schuld – Light installation and exhibition – Concept : 200 years anniversary celebration of Theater Trier – Trier – Germany

Line by line with pen and thread:  biographical paper embroidery

In my work, essential formal aspects are inextricably linked to my professional experience as a set designer and interior designer. Accordingly, my biographical embroideries contain drawn topographical and urban planning data and plan excerpts as well as fragments of photos and poetry, which I combine with pen and thread on paper.

Biographic Layer
Throughout my life, I have been observing, recalling and gaining insights from biographical conversations, recurring themes and life patterns, from relationship and family stories. My heart and my love and my attention go to the little things, the lived and beloved everyday-objects, the anecdotes that carry the whole story – my “pars pro toto”. This also includes places where I have lived, which I like to wander through again and again, both physically and in my imagination. By objectifying my own biographical story in my work, my work is inviting the viewer to reflect on their own biographical memories.

Technique:
My paper embroideries are created in different worksteps and layers. First using pencil and fineliner, I draw recognizable architectural plan sections reduced to striking lines and surfaces to almost deconstructed abstract patterns. In the next step personal family photos, fragmentary poetic sayings or other objects transferred as a biographical layer. The last final step follows: selectively sewing over the various preliminary drawings with colored yarn. Sewing as one of the oldest crafts in human history, and in addition to its functionality, also has an artistic and aesthetic significance. To me sewing on paper is patiently drawing on paper with a needle and thread. Every stitch and every line is considered carefully.

Beginning:
In my first work Treffpunkt Tiergarten (2018) I still used an old original CAD plan of the Berlin Tiergarten, which I further alienated compositionally with fineliner and then re-sewn distinctive main paths and visual axes as well as parking areas with different colored threads. The seams run vertically and horizontally as well as diagonally; placed side by side or hatched. The sewn lines take on a life of their own from their former architectural context. The different colored yarns in different thicknesses develop a multidimensional effect.

Paper Colouring:
In the Blaue Serie (2021) I first colored the paper with watering the paper in blue ink in dipping processes of different lengths. After the drying process, the sheet was further processed according to the method described above. The different colored threads achieved a different effect on the blue background: the white threads looked more radiant; the dark threads also stood out more clearly and formed interesting correspondences with each other. The photos and portraits are close family members, their aging, their handwriting, their identifying things and places. 

Painting With Threads:
In the current series Polychromie with Irmi (2022) I keep using the same photo template and only vary the yarn colors. Based on Le Corbusier’s Polychromie of colors, only the following three color combinations are selected per sheet. This work will include 18 sheets in the end.

The smaller color studies were sewn on extra sheets and belong to the work above: sometimes in a regular cross-stitch or as a horizontal line, sometimes sewn several times on top of each other. The different colored yarns achieve a particularly idiosyncratic color effect in the serial repetition of the motif. I am researching the painterly possibilities with the threadline.