Artist's
Statement
from OR to AND: Working as close as possible to nothing
The investigation into the nature of borders and boundaries took me into the immediate environment of my household. What was initially fired by psychological necessity became an in- depth spiritual inquiry into the heart of matter, or – shall I say – into the very source of everything that appears solid and real.
- What exactly defines the border between something and nothing?
- Where and how does one end and other begin?
- Am I body in space? Or am I space that fleetingly expresses itself as body?
- How close to nothing can I get?
You will hardly find me in an art supplies store. It does not make sense to me unless art is separate from life. But that cannot be.
Browsing through the kitchen and the laundry room I find banana peels, clothing labels, newspaper, holey socks, and the Kombucha culture membrane, among other precious refuse. I am determined to love the flawed and deficient into the wholeness from which they originally separated. Anything in my immediate environment that appears rejected or refused is a portal into questioning the either/or of separation and disconnect: It cannot be that this, too, doesn’t belong.
In the mid-1990es a slippery and smelly Kombucha membrane became the ultimate relational conduit for this very personal inquiry. I called it “Culture”. As it aged it generated a gelatinous pellicle, a solid barrier membrane that retains and insists on its own aliveness.
The most unlikely – the impossible!- seemed just perfect. What followed was a full immersion – literally and metaphorically -into the specially designed incubators to harvest these gelatinous pellicles. I had to ask neighbors to help me lift enormously heavy, thick and slippery layers of Kombucha skin onto a fishing net to hang them into my greenhouse to dry.
I was convinced that I was invited into a reciprocal relationship with a living entity. That is why I never considered the Kombucha- Culture material to be “useful” to transport a particular meaning or message. Rather, it was the full embodiment of a mutual process that respected each other as complete entities. That meant initially not to cut, iron, drill, burn, paint, or in any conceivable way impose my will onto that aliveness growing in those incubators in my backyard. I felt like I was tending, nursing, grooming, cooking, feeding, etc…
I was the shepherdess of cellulose, yeast and bacteria. The parameters of the pasture were given by the size of the incubator and a particular shape outlined inside those growing tanks.
It took courage to tie rubber bands around the membranes and force them into particular shapes (extrusion series). I also challenged myself by cutting into the material – something I had not previously allowed myself to do – to impose my will and a certain form onto the membrane (incision series) This was especially difficult, since I had decided it was not ethical to force myself upon an already complete living organism.
The Instrument – formerly “Untitled”- came into form as such an “extrusion” /extrusive experiment. It feels like a common household gadget, much like a hairbrush, a particular kitchen device or piece of equipment you find in your toolkit at home. Or perhaps a petrified bouquet of flowers. No longer use-full it retains the mystery of its purpose – inaccessible and yet clearly implied – a thing we no longer see but would miss if it was gone.
Nöle Giulini 2023
“The Emperor’s New Clothes”
The conceptual context of my work is about the subtle tension created between material, process and form. Matter regarded as flawed, without value, or no longer useful is given significance and meaning through the creative process. Something unwanted, perhaps offensive, can be discovered to be sacred and complete.
Out of debris and its psychological companions, I find the one thread–and I follow it. My intention is neither to decorate or please nor to irritate or repulse.
It is my life’s calling to climb into the interior and wait silently. Within these mossy walls I get to, once again, turn over rocks to see what lives underneath.
Ultimately the effort lies in trusting what is already here to unfold.
In “Holy Socks,” for instance, I collected socks with holes in them their owners were going to throw away. But it was exactly the holes that I found interesting. Here lay the boundary between something and nothing, between positive and negative space. The holes serves as both the boundary and the opening into the mystery.
In other works I have used Kombcha Culture to grow my own material. Here time turns liquid into solid. Solid ages, like us, and time becomes another element in sculpture.
We are taken by time. We have no choice.
How much can I explain?
Everything that reminds us of home
Is home.
– Nöle Giulini
July 6th, 2005
Willkommen-Heissen als Lebensweg
Als Künstlerin hat mich immer das angezogen, was übersehen, vermieden oder vergessen wird, oder als falsch, störend, fehlerhaft oder schmutzig abgewiesen wird.
Das, was als Material am unwahrscheinlichsten schien, das war mir gerade recht. So habe ich es zu meiner künstlerischen und spirituellen Aufgabe gemacht, das Gold im Stroh und das Stroh im Gold zu finden und willkommen zu heissen.
Dass der Kaiser eigentlich keine neuen Kleider trägt, sondern nackt durch die Strassen der Kunst läuft – das fiel mir schon sehr früh auf.
Wie nah komme ich an das Formlose heran, wie wenig Material kann ich verwenden, um dennoch etwas darzustellen?
Wie nah komme ich heran an das Nichts, aus dem doch das Alles hervorspringt?
Das war und ist meine Frage als Künstlerin und auch als Yogini an eine Welt, die atmende Lebendigkeit zudeckt mit endlosen Verschreibungen, sich immer wieder und wieder selbst zitierend das vermeidet und zukleistert, was bebt und wabert und nicht zu strukturieren, nicht zu benennen, und nicht zu kontrollieren ist.
So nahm ich zum Beispiel die Löcher in meinen Socken wahr – und ernst – als “Grenzwache der Materie”. Sie sollten wie Engel in der „Hol(e)y Sock“ Serie „a perfection made of imperfection“ ausstrahlen:
“Das Merkwürdigste an einem Loch ist der Rand. Er gehört noch zum Etwas, sieht aber beständig in das Nichts, eine Grenzwache der Materie.”
Kurt Tucholsky
Alles, was sich nach Auflösung sehnt oder ins Dunkle hinein spricht – das interessiert mich:
das vergilbte Weiss von abgetragenen Unterhosen, vertrocknete Bananenschalen, Obst und
Gemüse, dass sich zersetzt, Kaninchenkot, alte Zeitung, bis hin zur Kombucha Membran, die
selbst im getrocknetem Zustand noch lebendig ist.
Fasziniert von diesem Grenzzustand zwischen hier und dort – dem Entweder /Oder – wende ich mich also auch in meiner Meditationspraxis den Aspekten unseres Lebens zu, die wir unter den Teppich fegen oder denen wir lieber den Rücken kehren.
Im Sowohl-Als-Auch leben bedeutet Willkommen-Heissen.
Hier liegt der Schatz verborgen.
Die Schatzhüterin
Aus dem Buch “Die Schatzhüterin” von Nöle Giulini und Christine Schmücker (2022)
Missachtetem Achtung schenken
Nöle Giulinis Kunst beschäftigt sich mit Dingen, die einfach achtlos weggeworfen, missachtet, abgelehnt oder aufgegeben wurden. Sie öffnet sich in ihrer Kunst dem Ausdruck, der Form und Sprache der verlorenen Dinge und Wesen, nimmt sie wahr und gibt ihnen Raum, Kontext und Sinn, bis sie in neuer Umgebung wieder wahrgenommen und beachtet werden.
Das ist ein Prozess, der nicht konzipiert werden kann, er kann sich im besten Fall aus sich heraus entwickeln. In ihrer Yogaarbeit geschieht etwas Ähnliches: innere Kräfte entfalten sich, Verstecktes wird gesehen, Ungeliebtes geliebt, Verlorenes gefunden und das Sein mit all seinen Facetten im großen Ganzen im eigenen Körper erlebt.
„Ich habe es immer als meine Aufgabe in dieser Welt empfunden, liebend zu umarmen, was im Dunkeln lebt und den verurteilten, abgelehnten und zerbrochenen Aspekten des Lebens Stimme, Ausdruck und sanfte Zuwendung zu geben. So achtsam und liebevoll wie möglich sowohl als Künstlerin als auch als Yoga- und Meditationslehrerin mit diesen Aspekten zu arbeiten, ist das tiefste Anliegen meines Herzens.“
Nöle Giulini
Resume
Nöle Giulini
1813 36th Street
Port Townsend, WA 98368
Yoga website:
https://thepracticeofwelcoming.net/
360-301-3718
nolegiulini@gmail.com
Birth: Heidelberg, Germany, 1958
Exhibits:
Bodenrader Inaugural Exhibition
Groupshow at Bodenrader
1620 West Carroll Ave., 2nd floor
Chicago, Illinois
October 28 – November 25, 2023
April in Paris Fine Arts
Conduit House Group Exhibition
curated by Jennifer Teets
The Netherlands
September 17th – December 17th, 2023
Nöle Giulini Solo- Show
15 Orient, 12 Jefferson Street
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11206
December 10th, 2022 – February 2023
“Jahresgaben”, Bonner Kunstverein
Hieronymus-Boschlings
Bonner Kunstverein, Germany
November 2021
“Kunst im Klimawandel / Art in Climate Change”, Traveling Group Exhibition curated by Samuel J. Fleiner
Bonn, Germany 2009
Bad Urach, Berlin and Dessau, Germany 2008
Heidelberg, Germany, September – October 2007
Ihlienworth, Germany, July – September 2007
“Transmogrification”; Three women show at the CAS Gallery
University of Miami, Florida 2007
“Patchwork : Affinities and Influences in Contemporary Art”
Greg Kucera Gallery
Seattle, Washington, 2006
Catherine Person Gallery
Seattle, Washington, 2005
“The Emperor’s New Clothes and Other Works by Nöle Giulini”
Solo Exhibition – Northwind Arts Center
Port Townsend, Washington 2005
“Fabrications”
Northwind Arts Center
Port Townsend, Washington 2004
“Alchemy of Abstract“
Northwind Arts Center
Port Townsend, Washington 2004
” Magic Markers”- Objects of Transformation
Des Moines Art Center
Des Moines, Iowa 2003
“Uncommon Threads: Contemporary Artists and Clothing”
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 2001
“Holy Socks”
James Harris Gallery
Seattle, Washington 1999
“18th Annual Northwest International Art Competition”
Whatcom Museum
Bellingham, Washington 1998
“Time and Materials”
The Art Gym, Marylhurst College
Marylhurst, Oregon 1998
“Play Clothes”
Hoffman Gallery of the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts
Portland, Oregon 1998
“Fresh Clothes”
Bumbershoot Fine Arts Festival
Seattle, Washington 1997
“Body Puppets”
Solo Show at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center
Port Angeles, Washington 1997
“Organically Grown”
Group Show at the Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena Gardens
San Francisco, California 1997
“Hello Again!”
Group Exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California
Oakland, California 1997
“Strait Art ’96”
The Port Angeles Fine Arts Center
Port Angeles, Washington 1996
“Weddingdress”
Pope Marine Building
Port Townsend, Washington 1996
“A Labor of Love”
Group Exhibition at the New Museum on Contemporary Art
New York, NY 1996
“Kunstkabinett”
Group Show at the Center on Contemporary Art (COCA)
Seattle, Washington 1995
“June Bride”
Sherrie Frumkin Gallery
Santa Monica, California 1995
“Sheet”
Group Exhibition at Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa 1995
1004 Gallery
Port Townsend, Washington 1994
“New World (Dis-) Order”
Group Show
Richard L. Nelson Gallery, Memorial Union Art Gallery, and C. N. Gorman Museum, University of California, Davis, Ca. 1995
Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, Ca. 9/94
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; 5/94
Center for the Arts, Yerba Buena Art Gardens, San Francisco, Ca. 2/94
“The Portrait as a Shoe”
Palo Alto Cultural Center
Palo Alto, California 1993
“Objecthood”
Mills College Art Gallery
Oakland, California 1993
“Introductions”
Paule Anglim Gallery
San Francisco, California 1992
Susan Watkins Award Exhibition
New Langston Arts
San Francisco, California 1991
“Ausgerechnet Bananen-Künstler Zeigen Gelb”
Traveling Group Show
Künstlerhaus Mousonturn
Frankfurt, Germany 1991
“Corners”
Group Show at Artspace Annex
San Francisco, California 1990
Diego Rivera Gallery
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco, California 1989
Spring Show
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco, California 1988
“Much Ado About Nothing”
To trust the slightest inkling
To take an impulse all the way
To turn into value what has been discarded
To point out that which has been forgotten
To bring forth that which has been swept under the carpet
To bring into the light what hides in the closet
Straw into Gold
Sandpaper into velvet
To no longer look on the outside for what is missing inside
To listen to what remains silent
To allow (into oneself) that which has been dismissed
To question an answer
To bring into focus the confused, the irritating, and the irritable,
The undeniable and the painful
To settle into discomfort
To relax into one’s crookedness
To comfort the rejected, the distressed and the ones left out and unloved
To pick up what has been dropped under the table, put it in a pipe and smoke it
To elaborate on what lies in between the lines
To elevate the basic
To treasure the smallest, faintest, the seemingly most unlikely; most insignificant
To transform the ordinary into the extraordinary
To turn shortcomings into longshots
To come to terms with the terminal
To inhabit the space next to nothing
To get one’s hands dirty
To make do
To make something out of nothing
To invent meaning
To set up a circus tent inside a tight ass
To broaden the horizon in a narrow mind
To make it up
To show up, regardless
To let the drop account for the ocean
– Nöle Giulini
5/98