Dörte Putensen uses a sewing machine to create collages from scraps of fabric, laminating pictures and objects with an infinite number of threads that, one way or another, celebrate a colorful togetherness.
It all starts with artistic passion and the gathering and collecting of impulses, colors and materials.
Countless stitches transport the thread across the heights and depths of the layers of fabric in my sewn collages. Their design is always preceded by the idea of the reality of a "red thread", whether in a landscape, an animal, in human images or processes. Nothing runs in a straight line. Many detours or aberrations of the threads ultimately merge into an aesthetic. My basic attitude is a stream of allowing, which is brought to the surface and makes every ripple in the universe visible. In this way, every bit of fluff or scrap of fabric is of value, exactly where it is used.
The pictures come to life through the variety of colors, shapes and seams, they change with the incidence of light or the angle of view. The threads are the connecting link, a kind of signpost. They are oriented towards the remnants and displace the often obstructive perfection. The work grows in the process.
Sometimes the works appear to be three-dimensional, abstract, sometimes realistic, as if painted. Then they tell of many hours of fine textile work. The reliefs and sculptures are modeled from a wide variety of materials and sewn by hand. I like to work figuratively with stretchy fabrics and create installations from a mix of materials and a mixture of different working techniques. The corona pandemic gave me time to experiment and I discovered a new way of "processing". I stroked the sewing machine, removed the threads from the rolls and laminated some portraits, landscapes and objects.
