Bettina Pauly Bookart and Letterpress

YEAH – it’s done!! – there was an extension to the deadline which helped me finishing my piece ‘Klabautermann’.

Title:

‘Klabautermann’
traditionally a type of kobold who lives aboard ships and helps sailors and fisherman on the North Sea and Baltic Sea in their duties

Structure:
variation of the ‘snake’ book structure,
the opened piece is about 31 inches long and 52 inches wide
a rod is used to hang the piece

Media:
65 mono prints, acrylic paint, on 6×4 inch pieces of tyvek paper
65 green/blue dyes on 6×4 inch pieces of glassine paper
first row – 13 letters – spelling out ‘klabautermann’ machine-stitched onto the paper
the scene shown on the piece is made by patch-working glassine paper onto the tyvek, using a sewing machine
every piece of tyvek has a piece of glassine as backing sewn along the sides
the single sheets are knotted together
it can be completely folded up to a stack of paper – or in my terms a book with 65 pages

Artist Statement:
The piece was inspired by a call for entries titled ‘superstition 13’.
The Klabautermann is a water kobold who assisted sailors and fisherman in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. He is a merry and diligent creature, with an expert understanding of most watercraft, and an unsuppressable musical talent. He also rescues sailors washed overboard. The name comes from the Low German verb klabastern meaning ‘rumble’ or ‘make a noise’. The first time the ‘Klabautermann’ was mentioned in literature dates back to the 13^th century. Despite the positive attributes, there is one omen associated with his presence: no member of a ship blessed by his presence shall ever set eyes on him. He only becomes visible to the crew of a doomed ship.
The scene shows a doomed sailboat, riding on high waves – the Klabautermann has already left the vessel to escape the sinking ship.
Growing up only a few miles away from the North Sea, it seemed to make sense to me to use some ‘superstition’ from my heritage.
Working always under deadline pressure, I was not able to finish ‘Klabautermann’ on time for the superstition call.
This piece is on view for the first time at the Goethe Institut San Francisco’s exhibition ‘Close to the Wind’, a cultural contribution to the America’s Cup, 2013.

I am not sure if I am able to meet the deadline for this one – see picture below (sorry for the bad quality…better ones are following!). After a super busy couple of weeks I am trying to figure out if I should ‘push hard’ to finish the artwork or just ‘let go’ and take a day off, doing nothing, enjoying the sun?!? Maybe I feel more energized once I am back home (right now I am sitting in a Cafe). This piece is for the exhibit at the Goethe Institut. It’ll be a book that once it is fully opened can be displayed like a hanging piece, either against a wall or in the room so one can walk around it. The title is ‘Klabautermann’ – that’s a type of kobold who lives aboard ships and helps sailors and fishermen on the Baltic and North Sea in their duties. The belief in Klabautermanns dates to at least the 1770s! The picture shows part of the piece – far from being done – under the water, under the sea ….