THE TÖWELBUCH

Töwelbuch

A work of art can be cluttered or sparse.  Either way, it can still be harmonious.  The challenge is to apply this rule of harmoniousness to the creative act.  How can I maximize my resources?  These resources include not only materials, but also time, physical energy, clarity of vision and emotional fortitude.

A major question for the artist is “how do I best express my idea?”  Say I decide to express my idea in paint on canvas.  My goal is to express the idea in a so balanced a fashion that all the annoying, disruptive bits cancel each other out and I am left with one clear statement.  Very good.  However, there is a problematic side-effect.  My painting process includes the use of old bath towels.  So after a few years of painting I must ask myself another question: “what am I going to do with all these towels?”

the painter's towels

There are two answers.  I could throw them out or I could make further art out of them.  One thinks of composting.  An artist is an urban farm: urban, because cities are fertile with the surplus monies and audience necessary to sustain art; and farm because, like a farmer, an artist must produce. Farming is an art that produces food.  The artist and the farmer share many of the same concerns.

For example, both artist and farmer must consider the carrying capacity of their resources.  A classic, Jeffersonian, family farm thrives on the judicious use of its land.  Furthermore, the small farm thrives on diversity and the symbiotic relationships facilitated by the nurturing of different crops and different animals.  Likewise, artists, if they so choose, can discover the utility of various media, some of which are created as the by-products of another branch of their creative output.  For example, scraps of unused canvas from painting can be used in some other work even if they no longer have potential as painting surfaces.  If the artist can find the beauty or at least utility of the scraps, then the only additional expense is the time spent putting them together artfully or patching holes in the roof of a squat.

Repurposing is one way for an artist to maintain carrying capacity.  It only requires that the artist start with the medium, rather than the idea.  And necessity can yield results, maybe even beautiful ones.  There was a period when Picasso had too much blue paint. He used his surplus blue the way a farmer will nurture life out of hay.

And speaking of compost, here is what I did with the towels.  First, I conditioned them.  I washed them, so that only the image adhering to the surface remained, and they got soft and fluffy,

Wash-machines are in the basement.

and then I gave them some air.

airing the towels

Then, I bound then together as a book.

towel codex binding

Töwelbuch opening

The book structure is a variation of the medieval codex – the text block sewn together over bands sewn into covers, the contents are pure action painting totally free of rational control, and the medium is towels.  As far as I know, the Töwelbuch is the first artist's book totally suitable for the bath – a repurposed-double-elephant-post-modern-steam-punk-folio unique.  I could go on to make many claims about it, but suffice it to say that while it may be tidy or beautiful or ugly or large, it serves no purpose other than to be.  It is no longer suitable as a desiccant.  Nor is it edible.