Christin Kaiser: Schnörkel

Every day, items of clothing are forgotten or left behind in elementary schools. The artist translates this everyday experience into architectural decorative elements: jackets, gym shorts, and T-shirts are cast in bronze and placed on the four supporting pillars in the foyer. “Schnörkel” uses sculptural means to transform the textile realities of everyday school life into a humorous engagement with architecture.

The garments, rolled up like snails, are reminiscent of volutes—decorative elements of classical Ionic columns that derive from the ornamental form of the snail. Worn jeans, sweatshirts, hoodies, and a discarded soccer shoe are rolled into compact bundles of fabric, stiffened, and cast in bronze using the lost-wax casting process.

The textile material is permanently solidified. The metal aesthetically enhances the source material and references ancient temple structures, in which load-bearing elements and their organic accessories were translated from wood to stone construction.