The material has been deliberately alienated

The show by Helena Krähenbühl in the Atelier Maschine 17 brings a re-encounter with a proactive artist.

In the austere rooms of the former paper factory (Papieri) in Cham, where the Atelier Maschine 17  studio is now located, the colourful pictures and tapestries by Helena Krähenbühl provide invigorating accents. The approximately 50 objects and compositions from the beginnings to the present day provide an insight into her diverse work. The vernissage took place last Saturday, 26 August.

The 78-year-old artist from Zug originally comes from the textile sector, but exploring and crossing textile boundaries and experimenting with the alienation of the material has always appealed to her. And it was always abstract compositions that Helena Krähenbühl captured from her imagination onto paper or fabric. Some with the brush, others with the sewing machine.

Many of the works of art in small and large formats were created in this way, and their diversity is surprising, as are the materials used. Because not only paper and fabric formed the basis for an object, but also leather, ropes and wires.

She also didn’t shy away from knitting an object out of bulky electrical cables. A black exhibit hangs from ceiling to floor in the foyer of the exhibition, and there is another in the room next door, and it can be plugged in to light up the small bulb built into it. “The cables stand for the masculine; through the knitting, I connected the material with the feminine. With the flow comes knowledge, for both sexes,” says the artist and laughs.

Nature and weather included
And Helena Krähenbühl also emphasizes: “All the objects are made of used materials. I've always recycled." She has let herself be guided by the materials. Collages with textile fragments can thereby be seen, which she has exposed to nature and the weather. "It was an unpredictable process," she says.

A textile object shows rows of rusted pins that have coloured the fabric brown. She makes use of this effect on fabrics by allowing iron parts to rust. An interesting exhibit is a round wire sewn with countless colourful scraps of fabric, for which even the artist no longer knows how many metres long it is. And the huge colourful tapestry has lost none of its attractiveness.

Helena Krähenbühl with some of her exhibits
She has experimented with many things in her artistic work
Photos: Roger Zbinden

The preparation for the exhibition was a hefty piece of work, because there is so much stored in the basement. "Thanks to my daughter Greta and the gallery owner Jo Steiner, we made it," says Helena Krähenbühl. The preparation of the works reminded her of the times when they were created and was associated with emotional moments. “It was difficult to see what had happened over the years. I feel pride and joy, even though I would have wished for a little more support in the past. I was always just a creator."

The urge to art came early
Helena Krähenbühl was born in Baar in 1944 and trained as a pharmacy assistant. The urge to artistic work came a few years after her marriage: in 1972 she founded a preschool kindergarten and the Kinderhütte painting studio in Schönegg Zug. She then continued her education at art schools in London, Zurich and Lucerne. From 1978 she ran her own studio, and awards in the textile sector soon followed.

A highlight in 1986 was the “1st Prize ex aequo du jury at the Exposition Nationale de Patchwork Contemporain de Lausanne”, later followed in 2000 by the studio grant (Atelierstipendium) of the Canton of Zug in Berlin. Helena Krähenbühl was also a cultural mediator who valued working with others, for example on a wall cloth for the Evangelical Church.

She ended her artistic activity when she moved to the Baarerstrasse in Zug in 2008. She thereby made the shop window of the office on the street-side available to regional artists for a number of years. In addition to individual and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad, she has realised art in architecture objects. Her works can be found in the public space and in the canton's collections. Helena Krähenbühl received great recognition in 2021 when she was presented with the honorary award of the Zug Cultural Sash (Kulturschärpe).

Note:
Helena Krähenbühl's work exhibition runs in the Atelier Maschine 17 studio on the Papieri site in Cham until 23 September.
The opening hours are as follows: Thurs and Fri from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Sat from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.