Monnikenwerk

A dutch noun meaning, a small, often meaningless task that requires labor-intensive, time-consuming, and constant work. I found inspiration in the book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript from around 800 AD. The book contains the four Gospels of the New Testament and is made up of 340 leaves of vellum, each containing extremely elaborate paintwork. The miniatures and initials were painted with rich colors by scribes. These artworks are specifically famous for their combination of detail and bigger compositions. I wanted to draw attention to the richly decorated and fragile pages by making my own pages out of felt. By laying out every strand of wool with a needle and loosely rolling the hair into the felt, I could relate just a little bit, to the insane amount of time these scribes must have been painting, hunched over their books, all to produce a single letter.

June 2021