Mardi Gras (Fasnet) in Bad Canstatt

Totally by accident did I learn a few things about the FASCHINGS HOCHBURG:
BAD CANSTATT bei STUTTGART.

Much of the tradition is recent yet connects to history: One of the masks I particularly enjoyed was called a FELBE. It took me quite some time to figure out that this face is an artsy creation of the willow tree's "head" with its branches cut off. The story goes that in the French Wars of Louis XIV (the war of the Palatine succesion 1688-97) the Germans feared an attack and watched as the fog lifted. Instead of finding the French enemy on the opposite bank of the river they saw a formation of willow trees. Willow branches were used to make baskets....
The mask is carved grotesquely from Lindenwood and the wearer uses a colorful outfit and noisemaker used in vineyards to chase away the birds. Here is the German description from the Narrengilde der Felben: http://www.felben.de/03.html

Das Häs ist ein buntes Blätzleshäs in den Farben grün, rot, orange und braun und besteht aus bis zu 2000 Filzblätzle, die von jedem Hästräger selbst aufgenäht werden. In der Hand trägt die Felbe eine Weinbergrätsche.

Tom, Beate and Matthias were eating dinner at the Weinstube Klösterle when a few costumed revellers entered the restaurant to sing songs, make noise and invite the guests to participate in ending Mardi Gras with burning a straw doll.

http://www.felben.de/Bildergalerie_web/2011/dienstag%202011/images/IMG_3102.jpg

Later I learned that the restaurant is in a medieval house from 1463 which was owned by a women's convent of BEGINEN.

art formerly known as beverages

at the Armory show -visited on Sunday March 10, 2013- I could have bought this beautiful El Anatsui. He is now becoming very fashionable and is having an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum:
http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/el_anatsui/

My first encounter with the artist El Anatsui- was in Berlin where I snapped this photograph on August 8, 2010. I intuitively knew that the "artistic look" of the Alte Nationalgalerie juxtaposed something interesting and contemporary with the architecture used since Greek antiquity. I had no time to investigate because I was with friends who were interested in the Trödler market. I never found out who/what it was until two weeks ago:

In our Art office at THE HOTCHKISS SCHOOL we had a copy of Art in America. The detail on the cover was described on the inside with almost the exact same photo from Berlin that I had taken. More importantly it gave the artists name and exhibition calendar.

http://blog.savvycollector.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/art-in-america-2010-cover.jpg

I knew that this was similar to a piece I had seen in the MET called Between Earth and Heaven. From afar these artworks look like shimmering tapestries but on closer inspection one realizes that the material has seen a previous use: El Anatsui used salvaged liquor-bottle caps, flattened them, folded and/or twisted them, then stitched them together with copper wire. Met's Curator (in the video link below) describes the works as referring “to the celebrated West African traditions of stip-woven textiles, namely that of kente developed by weavers in Anatsui’s native Ghana…”

Taken on our MET trip Nov 4, 2010

Watch the MET install it on You tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7UBvknG8c4

for the artist’s statement and more detail:
http://www.ethnicarts.org/elanatsui/

example of Kente cloth: 
http://gse.berkeley.edu/faculty/WNGrubb/WNGrubb_Topics.html