TREIS
The Temporary Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt Enthusiasts and Imitators Society
Facilitating Artist: Season Butler
Max Participants: 10
#text experiment, #censorship, #artistnetworks
Image Credit: Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Still Life, 1979
Dates/Times: 3x Monthly on Sundays, 5pm GMT (2 hour duration each)
Format: Online & Correspondence
Module Description:
I keep thinking that I’ll find time to start copying Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt’s work, but I’ve been putting it off for years. I daydream about riffing on it and letting experiments occur to me and developing my own style of typewriter work, concrete poetry (signs fiction?), narrative tessellations, visual jokes, mail art…I keep thinking that I’ll find the time and headspace in the lag between holidays, or at the end of term, or when I finished my PhD. Etc.
I want to do it now, under the conditions of now. In aid of this, I’m starting the Temporary Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt Enthusiasts and Imitators Society.
TRIES will meet once a month for four months to talk about Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt’s work, contexts, inspirations, related practices and other material we’re inspired to share. Following each meeting, members will make work (postcard or standard letter size) to distribute by post to the rest of the group.
Through the course, we will become experts in R W-R’s practice and expand our own by experimenting with visual-textual practice and creating an archive of our experience as a temporary society. I expect that the logistical particularities of our current conditions will contribute texture to the experience.
Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt was born in 1932. From her apartment in East Berlin, she developed a text-art practice including her famous mail art, informed by the GDR’s travel restrictions and censorship policies. She stopped making new work in 1989.
For more, check out:
‘The Stasi didn't understand anything,’ Die Welt newspaper 2016 article on R W-R’s life and work
Image Credit: Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, 1974
Requirements
Participants will ideally have an active art and/or writing practice, and an interest in experimenting with text art, concrete poetry, mail art and adjacent fields, the ideas and histories that inform them, historically and in the present moment.
Frequency/ Contact
March - May, Monthly on Sundays for two (2) hours max with a mid-session screen break. Contact via email and zoom.
This event is brought to you by Queer Extension; Artist-Led Learning Online & By Correspondence. Queer Extension is funded by its participants and Arts Council England.
About Queer Extension:
Inspired by the University Extension movement that reduced barriers to access for marginalised communities; Queer Extension has invited queer artists to develop online and correspondence modules that enable queer community to learn together. Queer Extension is curated by Justin Hunt of I'm With You and produced by Jo Alloway of We Exist.
Pay what you can policy:
All modules hosted by Queer Extension are pay-what-you-can. We recognise that many LGBTQ+ folx may be experiencing financial hardship right now. All events have a sliding pay scale with a suggested minimum payment of £5. Please email imwithyouclapton@gmail.com if you would like to attend any of our events but do not have the financial means to do so.
Accessibility Information:
Queer Extension is committed to ensuring inclusive and accessible learning. Please email imwithyouclapton@gmail.com with any questions in regard to accessibility, including your own accessibility requirements.