The Aesthetics of Trash
Created: 08/29/2022, 2:00 p.m
The Bavarian cell artist Tutti Gogolin.
© Christian Scholle
The 82-year-old artist Tutti Gogolin lived in Berlin and New York until she returned to Bayrischzell in 2001.
Her work gives waste a new meaning.
Bayrischzell – For Tutti Gogolin, what ends up in the garbage for normal people is a welcome raw material from which she makes her extravagant art.
The 82-year-old native of Bavaria collects bottle caps, cat food cans, tea bags and yoghurt cups, puts them in order, arranges everything on a wooden board or canvas - and the result is amazing works of art that sometimes make you smile, sometimes put your finger in a wound and sometimes just that are beautiful.
Tutti Gogolin grew up in Bayrischzell, trained as a graphic designer, met her husband Klaus Gogolin – also an artist – at the art academy in Berlin, lived in the metropolis for 20 years and in New York for two years before the two returned to Bayrischzell forever in 2001 .
For a long time they have been one of the most distinctive artist couples in the district.
"You also have to keep an eye out for rubbish," explains Tutti Gogolin, who, on walks and explorations in the directly adjacent forest, collects what most people would not even notice, initially without any specific intention.
Only over time does an idea develop that is implemented with great taste, skill and sensitivity.
The resulting material images correspond to the recycling or upcycling idea and show that not only the supposedly beautiful can be beautiful, but also the apparently worthless, if you only stage it sufficiently or put it in a special context.
Transience is also put a bit of a stop here with artistic means.
The work "Feuerlilien" consists of 16 drinking yoghurt bottles, eight pink and eight yellow.
They have been cut open, intertwined, twisted to form powerfully glowing bud sites.
Mounted squarely on a green background and then framed in bright red, the whole thing results in an energetic work of art of high aesthetic quality - made of garbage.
Gogolin let the fire lilies grow out of empty yoghurt bottles.
© Stefan Schweihofer
On the other hand, the material pictures “Skinned” or “Flamed” from the “Traces of Transience” series get by with the colors of nature alone.
While in the first ten wooden sticks of equal length, stripped of their bark, artfully arranged reveal the beauty of nature – even the unspectacular ones, in the second 24 remains of torches, which are arranged rhythmically in two rows, create an archaic picture.
In all of Gogolin's works, order and structure are emphasized, often using white lines or grids to emphasize them.
This orderly structure gives the impression of safety and security.
And results in the unmistakable Gogolin handwriting, their unique selling point.
"I would never copy anything," she confesses.
Trapped in plastic waste: With "SOS - Aus deepest need" the artist addresses the littering of the seas.
© Stefan Schweihofer
As much as some of her works make you smile, such as "Fool's Gold" made of twelve times twelve cat food can lids, the native of Bavaria digs deep into the wounds that industry and excessive consumption open up: In the object "SOS - Aus deepest distress..." sees hopelessly entangled fish in a tangle of plastic waste and nets.
A small – unfortunately more realistic – section of the sea.
Anyone who would like to see Tutti Gogolin's art live can do so until September 4th in the Bayrischzell art exhibition (Tuesdays to Saturdays 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., Sundays 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.) or permanently in the local evangelical church, where they can do so in their own technique has artistically implemented the themes "All Sufferings", "Good Friday", "Crown of Thorns" and "Mercy".
About this series
Art pushes boundaries and discovers new territory - not just in a figurative sense: Many artists work with unusual materials or techniques.
In the "Art Grip" series, we look over the shoulders of some of them in the district.
Everything from your region!
Our Miesbach newsletter informs you regularly about all the important stories from the Miesbach region - including all the news about the Corona crisis in your community.
Sign up here.