Al Mutanabbi always

Description:	Printed in an edition of 4. Medium: Silkscreen printed on stenciled handmade paper; piano-hinge binding. Karen Baldner grew up in West Germany in a Jewish family who survived persecution by Nazi Germany. The haunted climate of Germany after the Holocaust became a pivotal experience and narrative for her work. Other influences are: her publisher family, the literary/musical world she grew up with, and the experience of the written word as both powerful and slippery; the work and life of Joseph Beuys; the pioneering work of book artist Keith Smith; the sculptor/papermaker Winnifred Lutz; the shifts in thinking during the 1960s. Although Germany remains a personal and professional destination, living in the US has become an important emotional buffer. Karen moved to the US to complete her formal studies with a Masters Degree in Printmaking; she still lives and works in the Midwest. She teaches Book Arts in the Printmaking Department at Herron School of Art & Design at Indiana University in Indianapolis. Karens work has been supported by Fulbright and NEA Grants, as well as state grants from Arkansas and Indiana. She shows extensively throughout the US and Europe, and her work is in a number of public and private collections in the US, Canada and Germany. The book format offers an appropriate formal space for the dynamic processes I am interested in: two symmetrical pages that oppose and face each other, yet come together to a shared structure; a space to unfold, perhaps separate, juxtapose, integrate and mediate; objects expressive of their content that have to be used, interacted with by an audience. The inclusion of the viewer is mandated by format and tradition of the book structure. The viewer becomes part of the synergy of 2D and 3D parts completing them to a 4D experience. The intimacy of a book seems appropriate for offering up the open ended, unresolved and perhaps difficult processes I am exploring.When intellectual property is destroyed my heart aches. In particular, if the destruction is pervasive and massive, as the car bomb destruction of Al-Mutanabbi Street was in 2007. However, there is something indelible about knowledge and culture under attack. Books may get destroyed but people remember in their hearts and minds what is said inside them. My contribution to the Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here project points to al-Mutanabbi himself. His poetry and wisdom have survived for centuries. For me, his name and writing is becoming a platform for resurrection. In my book, I allow his words to become increasingly more assertive against the backdrop of war propaganda and increasing sizes of pages. Al Mutanabbi Always is a beckoning of the indestructible forces of culture. During the Nazi era, my familys publishing house inventory was burned, and the business was lost, except for the rescue of the authors rights. After the war my grandfather was able to rebuild the enterprise, and today, it is thriving as one of the larger publishing houses in Germany. I feel a personal connection to destructive events against culture. Hence, to me there was a special call to participate in this project. What we are looking at may be even larger than the world of books and culture but the attempt at destroying human spirit and its ultimate ability to withstand, survive and thrive.
Origin:	2015
Created By:	Baldner, Karen
Contributor(s):	Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition
Source:	http://iuidigital.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/AMSSH/id/937
Collection:	Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition Collection
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Copyright:	In Copyright
Subjects:	artists book art bookworks

Further information on this record can be found at its source.