ROSEMARIETROCKEL(b. 1952)Untitled.Woven wool tapestry.63 ¼ x 158 in. (160.7 x 401.3 cm).Executed in 1988.This work is from an edition of three.Provenance
Galerie Monika Sprüth, Cologne;
Galerie Isabella Kacprzak, Cologne"Before the age of industrial textile and clothing production, homes in many rural areas of Germany had what were known as 'Spinnstuben', or 'spinning rooms'…the ' 'Spinnstube' was a place for exchanging local news and telling all manner of stories in which village superstition was imaginatively interwoven with a deep fear of natural forces, divine providence and punishment to create tales of gothic horror. In the early nineteenth century, Enlightenment thinking turned these places into hotbeds of superstition, irrational fear and emotional confusion. The emerging bourgeoisie began to keep their children out of the 'Spinnstube'. The 'Spinnstube' can be compared with one of the two approaches mentioned above. Trockel's works have a tendency to guide the viewer towards a potentially infinite networking of content. Being diametrically opposed to the pure rule of logical reason, this is an approach that lets the viewer stray through the cultural and intellectual history of centuries. Layer by layer, the works are woven into a cocoon of evocative hints leading towards possible references and relations" (R. Schumacher, ed., Rosemary Trockel, Munich 2002, p. 52).