embodiment : Still Life

Photo: Ursula Rogg

Photos: Regina Maria Möller; Photos with Model: CR&SH; Hair and Make-up: Christina Roth, Model: Anja, M4

ABOUT

embodiment : Still Life was produced in the context of the magazine regina – still life, No.6 with the focus on the industrial landscape of the German “Ruhrpott”. It is made of a checkered cloth called "Grubentuch".

The word "Grubentuch" (“mine cloth”) derives from coal mining. The Grubentuch was popular in miners’ washrooms, because the coal dust could not be seen when used for drying. The “classic” pattern is a blue-and-white checkered cloth with red stripes around the edges.

“The kimono-like coat in the Stillife collection (2002) and the skirt that goes with it are made of blue and white checked “Grubentuch” (literally ‘pit cloth’) with the typical red border. Today, this fabric is used for dishcloths, but originally it was used by miners to dry themselves because the coal dust remained almost invisible against the pattern. It is still supplied by weaving mills in the Münsterland area to buyers in the Ruhr valley and beyond. Sprayed with a red tag, its texture tells the story of a region that was once the heart of the industrialized continent: the Ruhr Valley coal fields. When our parents were children, this industry covered the whole area in a layer of fine coal dust and gave the miners’ eyes thin black rims that made them glow with a heartrending gentleness, as if they were wearing eyeliner. Regina Möller adds a red tag to the Grubentuch, a flourish that has become a trademark of the Ruhr Valley. The regional history stored in this fabric is hybridized with a garment imported from Japan that only arrived in Europe twenty years ago. And however absurd the Grubentuch with its dishcloth associations may seem at first glance as a fabric for a kimono, it is reminiscent of the mainly blue and white materials used for the simpler types of kimono which, like the Grubentuch, get softer the more they are washed. It is true, however, that this inclusion of the lost era of coal was only made possible by the continued existence of weaving wills in the Münsterland region whose looms did not disappear with the mines, like reptiles surviving in a fossilized landscape. Regina Möller makes clothes that tell a story, textiles that are texts waiting to be deciphered.”

Quote: Barbara Vinken: “Singularity”, in: Regina Möller. embodiment – dress plot, exhibition catalogue Secession, Vienna, 2004

MATERIAL

"Grubentuch", cotton woven on Jacquard weaving chair

Red Tag "Still Life" spray painted by Malte Kobold and Erik Stek

Unique

CREDITS

embodiment : Still Life, 2002

Concept, design: Regina Maria Möller

Garment production with the cooperation of Dagmar Kniffki

EXHIBITION VENUES

embodiment : Still Life has been exhibited in different modes of presentation:

bb3, KunstWerke, Berlin 2004

Performance Jam, KunstWerke, Berlin 2004

trans-form, Galerie Villa Grisebach, Berlin, 2005

Check-in-Europe: Reflecting Identities in Contemporary Art, EPO, Munich, 2006

home / work / dress, Passerelle - Cenre D'Art Contemporain, Brest, France, 2012