Blend Images -THE BLOG!

US-based artist and photographer Diane Meyer’s newest project she calls, simply, Berlin is a record of that somewhat stark city. Stark because it was flattened in WWII and rebuilt using mostly ugly concrete. But Meyer does something unique and brings her own sense of warmth and character to her prints by using cross-stitch embroidery sewn directly on the prints to recreate a symbolic wall where the real Berlin wall once stood.

Diane Meyer states: “The images were taken in the city center as well as in the suburbs where I followed the former path of the Berlin Wall. I was particularly interested in photographing locations where no visible traces of the actual wall remain, but in which there are subtle clues of its previous existence. These clues include incongruities in the architecture that occurred as new structures were built on newly opened land parcels, changes in street lights or newer vegetation. In addition to the physical aspects that point to the former division of the city, I am interested in the psychological weight of these sites. In many of the images, the embroidered sections of the photograph represent the exact scale and location of the former Wall offering a pixelated view of what lies behind. In this way, the embroidery becomes a trace in the landscape of something that no longer exists, but is a weight on history and memory. As the embroidery takes the form of digital pixilation, I am making a connection between forgetting and digital file corruption. The embroidery emphasizes the unnatural boundaries created by the wall itself and provides a literal contrast to the concrete of the wall and a metaphorical contrast to its symbolism.”