Stichpunkt
Informations and contact
The Stichpunkt is a showcase gallery for textile design located at Seminarstraße 33-34 in Osnabrück. The department presents projects from selected seminars and student examinations in rotating exhibitions. The range of subjects extends from Frida Kahlo and plant dyeing to junk couture.
Further information: Bärbel Schmidt, baerbel.schmidt@uni-osnabrueck.de
Photo: Lucia Schwalenberg
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Junk Kouture - made in Osnabrück
Students present the results of the Junk Kouture seminar. The Textile Studies department is collaborating with Marketing Osnabrück GmbH on a window display. The works from Anke Beccard’s seminar are on display at the Theaterpassage in Osnabrück. The idea for the seminar originated in Ireland. At some Irish schools, Junk Kouture is an elective course available to students aged 13 to 18 alongside standard subjects. Students design and sew a haute couture garment using recyclable materials they have collected. The designs are evaluated by a panel of experts. The designs are presented at the finals in Dublin and broadcast on television. Performance plays an important role alongside design and craftsmanship. Junk Kouture has since spread to New York, London, Paris, and Abu Dhabi.
After an introduction for the students, the seminar focused on collecting recyclable materials. In addition to exploring consumerism, a key focus was on working with alternative materials such as paper, plastic, bicycle inner tubes, aluminum cans, or coffee packaging. Junk Kouture offers schools the opportunity to put creativity into practice. The participants explored the circular economy and applied what they had learned.Prior to the window display in downtown Osnabrück, the students presented their creations at a fashion show in the courtyard of the Textile Studies building. The designs aim to encourage German schools to adopt the concept of junk couture as part of their curriculum in design-related subjects.
Photo: Timos Zdoupas
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The Art of Carrying Oneself: Frida's Wardrobe
Frida Kahlo is famous for her self-portraits in voluminous skirts, embroidered blouses, and accessories. After her death, her husband Diego Rivera ordered that her private rooms be sealed for 50 years. In 2004, her wardrobe was opened to the public, revealing more than 200 colorful, partly ethnic garments, orthopedic corsets, hairbands, and jewelry. As part of the seminar “Frida’s Clothes” in the Research and Presentation module, students engaged intensively with Frida Kahlo’s clothing. The exhibition at the St!chpunktgalerie offers insights into their work. Thanks go to the participating students and to the university carpenter Jürgen Menkhaus for his support with the carpentry work, and to Markus Tiesmeyer from the university’s IT support team for his technical assistance. The seminar was led by Christine Löbbers and Lesley-Ann Baldwin.
Photo: Lucia Schwalenberg
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Locker vom Hocker
The St!chpunkt Gallery of Textile Studies features works by students from the “Off the Wall” seminar. The exhibits were created under the guidance of master interior designer Klaus Schmidt, in collaboration with Jürgen Menkhaus, master carpenter at the University of Osnabrück. After an introduction to design theory, nine students faced the creative, technical, and craftsmanship challenge of designing individual stools. The assignment included constructing models and executing the design in full scale. Additionally, the stool was to be aesthetically enhanced using the craft technique of upholstery. The upholstery fabrics were kindly donated by the Bielefeld-based textile publisher JAB ANSTOETZ.
Photo: Anja Leshoff.
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Occhi
The Schaufenstergalerie Stichpunkt is showcasing the results of a collaboration between the Textile Studies program and the Draiflessen Collection, featuring students’ occhi lacework. Occhi is an almost forgotten textile technique in which lace is created using a thread wound onto a shuttle. How was Occhi originally made? What historical sources can we draw upon if we want to relearn Occhi? And how can Occhi lace be interpreted in a contemporary way? The students asked themselves these and other questions during their research on this topic and, not least, while creating their works. The seminar was led by Christine Löbbers. A big thank you goes to Maria Spitz from the Draiflessen Collection for her guidance and to the student assistants Anja Leshoff and Daria Ivanov for their support. A brochure was produced for the project; see Publications.
Photo: Anja Leshoff.
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Colours of nature
The St!chpunkt Gallery is exhibiting works by students from a seminar led by textile designer Anne Hederer. The course offered an introduction to the world of plant dyeing. The students explored the identification of textile fibers and their preparation for dyeing, the dye plants and the creation of dye baths, the dyeing process itself, and the nuancing of tones. The dyeing was done using plant dyes sourced from the dye garden of the Textile Design program at the Botanical Garden. A big thank you goes to all the staff at the Botanical Garden for their support and to Anne Hederer for her inspiring course leadership.
Photo: Lucia Schwalenberg
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In memoriam of Hiltrud Schäfer
Memorial Exhibition at Galerie St!chpunkt
On January 16, 2023, our longtime colleague, textile artist Hiltrud Schäfer, passed away at the age of 85 after a life filled with creative energy. We are grateful for the memory of her contribution to contemporary textile art through countless exciting and inspiring courses for our students, such as the exhibition “Bücher Sätze Zeichen” or a Bauhaus exhibition with students and faculty at the Tuchmacher Museum in Bramsche. The paper dresses by Hiltrud Schäfer on display offer a glimpse into her work as a textile artist. Parts of the paper dress collection were created in collaboration with students to mark the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus. The exhibits showcase Hiltrud Schäfer’s free use of materials, her sculptural approach, and her passion for experimentation. We thank her family and students for the loans from Hiltrud Schäfer’s textile art estate.
Photo: Anja Leshoff
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Under the sea
Students learned the basics of tufting in the “Under the Sea” seminar with Anja Leshoff and Lucia Schwalenberg. The term “tufting” comes from the English word “tuft,” meaning a small clump of material. As a pile-forming textile technique, it offers an alternative to knotting. In this process, yarn is inserted into a backing material that is stretched across a frame. This can be done either by hand or with a machine. As a machine-based process, it was developed in the 1940s in the United States and has been in use in the German carpet industry since the 1950s. Due to the freedom it offers in design, tufting is a technique that is also used in textile art. The Textile Studies department has a tufting machine capable of producing carpets up to 1.20 x 2.20 m in size. The introduction to carpet tufting serves to familiarize textile students with both artisanal and industrial textile processes through practical examples. In the seminar “Under the Sea,” students worked in the style of the Portuguese textile artist Vanessa Barragao. She creates exhibits reminiscent of underwater landscapes using yarn scraps and surplus materials from the textile industry. In the seminar, ideas were developed and documented in mood boards and sketches. In addition to individual, smaller-scale works, a large-scale collaborative piece was created in shades of the sea and seaweed.
Photo: Lucia Schwalenberg
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Masterful Tailoring
The exhibition Hohe Schneiderkunst (Masterful Tailoring) at the Stichpunkt Gallery showcases the results of a collaboration between the Department of Textile Studies and the Draiflessen Collection in Mettingen. Students explored the theme in two seminars. In the seminar “From the Diagonal Grain to the Classic Suit” led by Christine Löbbers, textile students drew inspiration from couturiers such as Madame Grès, Madeleine Vionnet, Christian Dior, and Cristóbal Balenciaga. After conducting detailed research, they created their own designs. They experimented, replicated techniques, and tested artisanal refinements on their garments. These were displayed in an exhibition at the Forum of the Draiflessen Collection Mettingen alongside the designers’ originals. The exhibition concept was developed in the second seminar, “Haute Couture – 4 Fashion Designers – 4 Dresses – 4 x 4 Students,” under the guidance of Maria Spitz with a focus on museum education. The display window gallery features rotating selections from the exhibition.
Photo: Anja Leshoff
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Narrative Material
Narrative Material is the title of a new exhibition at the Schaufenstergalerie. Students are presenting their findings from a seminar on object research, which was held in collaboration with the Textile Research Centre Leiden. The seminar was led by Bärbel Schmidt. In the seminar, the students examined textiles using Jules David Prown’s Mind in Matter method. The method provides a set of tools for the scientific study of textiles, among other things. The aim of the research is to explore what stories these silent garments can tell. During the seminar, each student analyzed a garment of their choice from the department’s textile archive. The students are showcasing the garments they examined and the results of their analyses in the exhibition.
Photo: Wolfgang Sparenberg
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Pattern treasures
The Stiftung Mensch operates a double-wall weaving mill at the Altes Pastorat in Meldorf that is unique in Germany. The weaving mill features a historically developed collection of patterns with complex Jacquard card sequences, historic looms, machines, and tools, as well as an archive of fabric drawings and sample swatches. The workshop is operated by the Stiftung Mensch with employees with disabilities. Production is based on historical models. Through contact with the workshop leader, Wolfgang Sternberg, the idea arose to collaborate with students to create new, timeless designs for the historic museum weaving workshop. In previous semesters, students had already developed designs, for example for a Bauhaus exhibition at the Tuchmacher Museum in Bramsche, for the academic scarf of the University of Osnabrück, or for a social project in Sri Lanka. As part of the workshop restructuring in Textile Studies, Wolfgang Sternberg had assisted with the restoration of the department’s own punch-card Jacquard loom. Now the opportunity arose for further collaboration—a cultural-historical approach to the Beiderwand weaving workshop on a contemporary basis. Recent restoration work on the machinery has made it possible to create new card patterns in Meldorf. This opened the door for the collaborative project between the Beiderwand weaving workshop of the Stiftung Mensch and the Department of Textile Studies at the University of Osnabrück. Inspired by the historical motifs, the restored machinery, and the museum’s original practice of developing new patterns in the workshop, the students set to work. The goal was to create timeless, geometric patterns that could be translated into Jacquard card runs with a manageable amount of effort. The elaborate historical card runs require thousands of Jacquard cards, which must be punched card by card and sewn together to form a run. For practical implementation, patterns were to be developed that could be produced using one to two hundred Jacquard cards in the workshop of the Stiftung Mensch. The results of the collaboration are on display in the Textile Studies showcase gallery.
Photo: Lucia Schwalenberg
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Street art becomes clothing art
Street art becomes clothing art. Does street art painting require a cold wall, or can the same effect be achieved on a substrate that is, in many ways, the opposite of stone and concrete? What techniques can be used to achieve a similar visual language? Textile student Anja Leshoff explored these questions in her practical-methodological project. In her final project, she investigated whether visual aspects of street art painting could be transferred to a textile garment using an adapted technique without losing their impact and message. After exploring the facets of street art painting, Anja Leshoff created a mural on a building wall, which was then translated onto a coat using textile techniques. Artistic elements were to be adopted and adapted to the new material. The goal was to determine whether both “image carriers” (wall and coat) have the same effect or whether street art painting works exclusively on walls. The results are on display at Galerie St!chpunkt.
Poto: Anja Leshoff
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Female - male - divers
The exhibition “Female – Male – Diverse: A Unisex Garment That Breaks Down (Gender) Boundaries” is on display at the Schaufenstergalerie St!chpunkt. Under the guidance of Annette E. Schneider, students explored social conventions and how they are challenged by individual and gender-specific needs in a pluralistic society. Following a research phase, the students developed a unisex garment through group work. Reflections on issues of protection and human limitations were incorporated. A photo series was conceived and produced for the garment, which was created through a process ranging from design sketches to pattern construction, cutting, and final production. This series visualizes both the cross-gender possibilities and the complexity and flexibility of the garment, which adapts to the needs of a wide variety of wearers and situations. This enables free use beyond traditional conventions.
Photo: Jessica Kirschmann
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Clothing as a place of experience
The exhibition “Clothing as a Place of Experience” is presented by Textile Studies at Galerie St!chpunkt. Clothing is the space that immediately surrounds us, the space in which we live. What we experience within it remains imprinted as an experience or as a visible trace. Garments “marked” in this way serve as repositories and distillations of existential or casual experiences: Clothing becomes a “place of experience.” The shirt in its various forms—whether undershirt, nightgown, first-born shirt, christening gown, or Sunday shirt—is closest to our body and accompanies us throughout our entire lives. It is predestined to be a “place of experience.” Drawing on their individual experiences, students created basic shirt forms under the guidance of Annette E. Schneider. The self-made pieces were then worn, and the experiences lived or recalled while wearing them were documented. These traces on the clothing were intensified and brought to consciousness through post-processing. In a final phase, all the shirt objects were assembled into an installation through teamwork.
Photo: Lisa Verheyden
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World Cultural Heritage Blueprint and Stipwerk
Blueprint in Germany has been added to the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. In spring 2018, indigo printer Georg Stark from Jever successfully raised funds for a collaborative traveling exhibition on indigo printing and the Dutch Stipwerk, which is listed on the Dutch World Heritage List. Works by textile students on this topic can be seen at the St!chpunkt Gallery. In mid-2018, Georg Stark approached the Textile Studies department with the aim of creating exhibits for a younger audience. During the winter semester of 2018/19, students under the guidance of Bärbel Schmidt and Christine Löbbers explored these two historical craft techniques in the seminar "World Heritage: Indigo Printing and Stipwerk." They developed motifs, which the indigo printer then produced according to the students' specifications. The Dutch provided the students with Stipwerk fabrics. Aware of the value of the fabrics, the students developed object ideas using the zero-waste method, creating objects from the smallest pieces of fabric to fully utilize these valuable textiles. Following presentations at the Textile Research Centre in Leiden and the indigo printing workshop in Jever, the student projects, along with works by the fabric printer, are on display at the St!chpunkt Gallery.
Poto: Bärbel Schmidt
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Bluejeans: Myth or marketing?
In 1968, blue jeans weren't exactly part of the outfit of political activists, even if advertising years later turned them into the "revolutionary trousers." The protagonists of the protest movement were rather conventionally dressed. It wasn't until the 1970s that blue jeans became a coveted garment for many young people, a way to rebel against the narrow, bourgeois conventions of their time. Today, blue jeans are mass-produced worldwide. In Osnabrück's city center, on some days up to 70% of passersby are wearing blue jeans. What motivates so many people in our seemingly individualized world to voluntarily adopt this uniform? Are they falling for jeans advertising that uses old clichés and new details to make blue jeans a perennial fashion staple? Or are many people simply opting for durable, hard-wearing trousers that go with everything? Based on a case study in London, the English anthropologists Sophie Woodward and Daniel Miller come to a completely different conclusion. They see blue jeans today primarily as a 'neutral' garment, allowing one to blend inconspicuously and unrecognized into the crowd. This is an interesting thesis in light of an increasingly uncertain world and people filled with anxieties about the future, where personal statements are only dared on Instagram and provocations can quickly become dangerous. Students' exploration of this topic is showcased in the Textile Studies department's window display.
Foto: Lucia Schwalenberg
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