Ulla von Brandenburg
Die Wette
2024
Katazome-dyed cotton noren
80 x 60 cm
Edition of 15 copies signed and numbered on a certificate, 1 artist’s proof and 1 publisher’s proof
This edition is part of Ulla von Brandenburg’s research during her residency at Villa Kujoyama (Kyoto), which focuses on the world of shadows in Japan, their sensitive reality as well as their multiple representations — a vast repertoire from which the artist drew inspiration for her experiments with various textile techniques.
Die Wette [“The Bet”] consists of a noren, a typical Japanese curtain divided into two, three or more flaps that adorns the entrance to traditional homes and stores. Used for practical, decorative or promotional purposes, these textile devices also play a crucial symbolic role in Japanese conception of space, namely the flexible yet assertive marking of the threshold, that which separates inside from outside, one universe from another.
Von Brandenburg has depicted two yôkai, supernatural entities that populate Japanese folklore. Sometimes taking on partly animal or human forms, these otherworldly beings can nonetheless interact with humans. It is the porosity of the worlds embodied by the yôkai that is indicated here on the noren, that instrument of passage par excellence. The representation of the two beings through shadow work and the mysterious game of hands they play indicate the noren’s constant possibility of inversion — reversibility being one of the characteristics of katazome-dyed motifs. Through this profound ambivalence of subject and object, Die Wette seems to suggest that we ask ourselves which side of the natural and the supernatural we are on.
Ulla von Brandenburg’s exhibition took place at Keijiban from October 15 to November 14, 2024.