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Zum Kunstprojekt von Bruno Büchel und Elisabeth Lasche

Die Pietà in der Bielefelder St. Jodokuskirche

Andreas Beaugrand

„In Zeiten wie diesen“ – Silbermond, 2006 – , in denen religiöser Fanatismus à la ‚islamischer Staat‘, öffentlich geführte politische Ideologiedebatten ehemals real existierender sozialistischer Staaten oder ein irrlichtender US-amerikanischer ‚Präsident‘ den gesellschaftspolitischen Diskurs dominieren, ist es nicht selbstverständlich, dass sich zeitgenössische Künstlerinnen und Künstler aus freien Stücken und aus persönlichem Interesse der künstlerischen Auseinandersetzung mit christlichen Motiven widmen.

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Die Pietà in der Bielefelder St. Jodokuskirche

Elisabeth Lasche

Seit Beginn 2016 zeichnen wir, Bruno Büchel und ich, die Pietà, dieses Figurenpaar aus dem Barock, das Maria und den erwachsenen Jesus darstellt. Ob die Skulptur in Spanien oder in Westfalen gefertigt wurde, ist nicht definitiv geklärt. Der Künst- ler ist unbekannt. Sicher ist, dass sie Anfang des 18. Jh. aus Holz geschaffen wurde.

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Pietà

Bruno Büchel

Seit rund 2 1/₂ Jahren treffe ich mich mit Elisabeth Lasche regelmäßig am Donnerstag um 14 Uhr zum gemeinsamen Zeichnen. Anfangs waren es die üblichen Motive: Stillleben, Stadtansichten, Figur im Raum …
Es ging mir damals vor allem darum, in Übung zu bleiben, das ‘Handwerk’ zu pflegen.

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Aller Tage Wert

Literarisches Debüt: In „Stubenflieger“ betrachtet die Bielefelder Malerin Elisabeth Lasche das Leben aus der Schreibtischperspektive

Von Antje Doßmann, NW vom 20. 7.17

Bielefeld. Elisabeth Lasche und ihre vielschichtigen Bilder sind in der Kunstszene der Stadt seit langem kein unbeschriebenes Blatt mehr. Dass die Künstlerin jedoch ergänzend zu ihren gemalten Geschichten seit 2002 regelmäßig zu Papier und Stift statt zur Farbtube greift, um in Worten festzuhalten, was sie in ihrem alltäglichen Leben bewegt, dürfte bislang weniger bekannt sein.

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Ausstellung PIETÀ

mit Elisabeth Lasche und Bruno Büchel,
12.01.2018, Produzentengalerie
Text von Sunčana Dulić (atelier D)

Sie steht abseits des Geschehens am Kopfende eines etwas abgegrenzten Raumes. Das Licht kommend vom zwei starken Spotlampen von der Decke, beleuchtet sie. Sie steht auf einem großen weißen Sockel. Hinter ihr ist eine Wand mit quadratischen kleinen Aussparungen, die so groß sind, dass ein Teelicht in einem Glas hineinpasst.

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Das grüne Zimmer

Seit 2009 bestimmt die Farbe Grün meine Malerei. Jetzt hat das Museum MARTa in Herford im Mai 2016 dieser Farbe eine eigene Ausstellung mit dem Tenor gewidmet, dass sie besonders schwierig zu handhaben sei. Markus Lüpertz schmäht Grün sogar und sagt, dass man diese Farbe als Künstler nicht benutzen dürfe. Soviel Wind um eine Farbe. Mir liegt sie und ich benutze sie gerne. Als Kind spielte ich unbeschwert in meinem großen, grünen Zimmer.

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Uwe Scherer zur Eröffnung

Liebe Gäste und KollegInnen
Ich bin gebeten worden, Sie bei dem Streifzug durch das Grünen Zimmer zu begleiten und Ihnen meine Assoziationen zu dem Thema und zu den Bildern hier im Raum anzubieten. Diese Ausstellung von E.L. ist eine Hommage an die Natur. Ein persönliches Bekenntnis zu einer Geborgenheit und Schutz gebenden Natur.

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The Green Room

Since 2009 the colour green has guided my painting. Now, in May 2016, the museum MARTa in Herford has produced an exhibition that highlights the colour green as particularly difficult to handle. The artist Markus Lüpertz goes as far to say that he reviles green and that as an artist you should never use this colour! I, on the other hand, discovered it to be a beautiful and expressive colour which I love to use.

As a child I played carefree in a huge, green room. It had six entrances. One led into the house and the other five led me in different ways towards our village. In the morning I entered the garden barefoot while still wearing my nightgown. I inspected my green room to see if anything had changed over night. Here I received visitors, forgot myself in the brambles, overheard adults, watched the schoolchildren while they took away our plums, and I helped my mother by putting arm-fulls of flowers in the crystal vases of our Church every Saturday. When the evening sun cast long shadows and I could hear mysterious rustlings in the vast corners of our parish garden, I reluctantly left my playroom.

In every city I moved to in later days, I looked for another outside green room to give me a place inside for my soul to breath. Where ever I lived, in North Germany and in the city of Berlin, in Palatinate, or finally here in the East Westphalian country, I was lucky enough to find such a special place.

It was only when I missed my green room that I finally discovered how important it was in my life. I studied in San Jose, California in 1971, where the landscape was brown, the air was stuffy and the sky was grey. I missed my green outdoor retreat so badly with it’s lights and shadows, it’s colors, it’s scents, it’s sounds and hiding places. I missed it even more than my family and friends in Germany. At this point I started to paint every single day at school. I worked with different brown and grey colours in the white hidden room of a wonderful woman art teacher at Overfelt High. I continued to experiment with these colours for many years.

During my journey as an artist you will meet me and the green paintings that have been part of my life for so long, flowing from yesterday towards today and tomorrow. Here you will travel with me between lush meadows and swaying grasses. Later there appears in my work the spotty skins of old honorable plane trees, and I tell many colourful stories of the birch woods. In the last years I endevoured to capture the sounds of treetops and the colorfull shadows of leaves in my woodcuts. Following on from this excursion I moved towards the art of painting again. Now you will find wild and mysterious woods and meadows in my pictures which may feel dangerous to enter…they may seem hidden and strange. All my paintings through the passing years are determined by expressions of weather, movement, light, conditions and atmosphere. These are open spaces that are not controllable, places that take us back to experience life as freedom. I want to illuminate all these possibilities within the paintings of my green room.

Through my art I offer a personal view which has organically unfolded to embrace a new dimension in the context of climate change. The plane trees in front of our house are again threatened with destruction in these times of danger purely for cost-benefit reasons by incorrigile politicians. We will fight passionately to save the magical green room that is just outside our door.

Elisabeth Lasche, May 2016
Translation and consultation by Catherine Shrubshall (www.catherineshrubshall.com)

July Music Notes

Catherine Shrubshall

I am staring dreamily out over the sleepy Umbrian hills from my Italian terrace. A majestic view of Perugia rises before me as an early summer sun begins to set. Church bells ring out in the distance and birds harmonise delightfully with stories of their day. I must surely be in paradise? And just when I thought life just couldn’t get any better, my German artist neighbour appears with a large glass of „montefalco rosso“ served at perfect room temperature, accompanied by a plate overflowing with heavenly appetisers! My creative new friend sees that I am deep in thought tapping away on my iPad, she lays the feast by my side and quietly retreats. I’ve just spent 2 hours editing and translating some text for her new art exhibition which is opening in Germany soon, and the tasty offerings are in grateful thanks for this. Taking a ladylike quaff of wine I toast her over a floriferous rose bush.

I am staring dreamily out over the sleepy Umbrian hills from my Italian terrace. A majestic view of Perugia rises before me as an early summer sun begins to set. Church bells ring out in the distance and birds harmonise delightfully with stories of their day. I must surely be in paradise? And just when I thought life just couldn’t get any better, my German artist neighbour appears with a large glass of „montefalco rosso“ served at perfect room temperature, accompanied by a plate overflowing with heavenly appetisers! My creative new friend sees that I am deep in thought tapping away on my iPad, she lays the feast by my side and quietly retreats. I’ve just spent 2 hours editing and translating some text for her new art exhibition which is opening in Germany soon, and the tasty offerings are in grateful thanks for this. Taking a ladylike quaff of wine I toast her over a floriferous rose bush.

I came here a week ago with the plan of studiously taking in some Italian lessons, reconnecting with my Roman friends and, as always in the back of my mind, to search for some musical inspiration. As ever with such an adventure, the unplanned experiences along the way are all part of the journey. I arrived with an open mind and things just flowed…..

My German neighbours and I quickly bonded through a passionate interest in all things Italian and a mutual love of art….helped by an appreciation of good wine ϑ. The awkward Italian words we initially exchanged soon gave way to intense and fascinating conversations in English. Before I knew it, Elisabeth was seducing me with stories of her „Green Room“ exhibition and her desire for an accompanying English text. I was, it seemed, the girl for the job. So without a moment lost, I steamed in to action…and amazingly enough, Elisabeth was delighted with the result! I must thank you dear Thorpe Magazine because without the valuable writing experience you have afforded me, I would never dreamed of offering my writing services to anyone….and here I am having a great time doing it too!

The next day……
Well, my artist friends are recently gone and I am left with musical ideas in abundance. Elisabeth’s paintings have resonated with me on so many levels that melodies and lyrics pour forth. Luckily, on leaving Thorpe, I had thought to ram a plastic recorder in to my hand luggage at the last minute, and I have to say that even though it has its restrictions, this simplest of instruments has been incredibly useful! (Ryanair’s instrument carriage policy leaves a lot to be desired when transporting my beloved saxophones with care…. and this alone lends itself to a series of a series of distressing budget flight tales, of which I’m sure you’ll thank me for saving till another time).

This hot afternoon saw me roaming into the hills after my Italian lesson, clutching my recorder in my sweaty hand, along with a pencil and scraps of manuscript paper…….oh, and a large bag of local delicacies (I’m sure you’ll understand that these were completely necessary to support the creative flow!). It was amazing…..at this point in time I was content and at one with nature. The words I had written with Elisabeth were with me, as were her beautiful images, and I enjoyed a magical afternoon of pied piping with nature. I felt Saint Francesco of Assisi wandering with me amongst the olive groves, reflecting on how many different shades of green there are, and feeling simple peace in this verdant oasis.

August Music Notes

Catherine Shrubshall

“We always need to do what we do better and with more love and commitment – and always use music to reach out to people, never to exclude”.

I came upon these heartfelt words expressed by the international concert pianist Stephen Hough following the referendum, and I felt a surge of hope in such turbulent times. It highlighted to me how important and healing an artist’s contributions can be, guiding people to connect with what is truly precious: our relationship with each other and with the diverse world within which we all live. I became mindful that my pending musical engagements with “Tricksy Trobairitz” were offering us all the opportunity to communicate in this way through the universal language of music..… encouraging humankind to come together from all walks of life.

Our “Sounding the Sacred Space” was the final show in July’s “Shaftsbury Fringe Festival” – programmed as a late evening celebration in a picturesque local church. Much to our delight, a diverse crowd of inquisitive local parishioners appeared alongside trendy festival youth, all in search of something different. The music began to unfold….. Tricksy Nix bowed stratospheric shimmering harmonics on her violin from the balcony above me, Tricksy Fix lit ambient candles and laid down a velvety tone on a singing bowl…. the scene was set for me (Tricksy Mix) to glide in to the picture on a warm bass clarinet note. Over the next spellbinding hour we explored the environment of the tiny church through our improvised music, poetry and prose….travelling through many worlds of sound and style….bringing in some of the melodies I wrote in the olive groves of Italy too. Even the throbbing of my poor swollen foot (a clumsy collision with a piece of furniture earlier in the day!) was vibrating with the beat! As the outside light faded and the candles in the church gently flickered brighter, our story gradually came to a serene closure. I felt we had all arrived at the same destination with a renewed and positive energy, performers and audience alike.

However eclectic our gigs are, I was wondering what could possibly follow on from this special and magical event?….but then came our “Sounding the Waters” date at the “Ladies’ Bathing Pond” on London’s beautiful Hampstead Heath (for those of you who didn’t read my May article, I am an avid wild swimmer, and these chalybeate waters are one of my favourite spots for indulging my passion). The Trobairitz remit here was to inject musical healing and feminine energy into the watery site that had recently undergone a monumental dam building programme, majorly disturbing the pond life and its flora and fauna for many months. Time has passed and it’s business as usual now, but as in all cases of trauma, there is work to be done in order to gain rebalance. How honoured we were to be asked to help. And, what a privilege to experience a remarkable audience who were even MORE diverse than the Shaftsbury set, and with many collaborators too! Ducks and moorhens joined in with quacky abandon, city swimmers splashed in time, the wind whipped across the waters….we gathered a troupe of sensitive listeners as we worked the environment and healed the wounds. The waters shimmered, we like to believe, in gratitude.

Arriving back in Essex, I headed out for Beaumont Quay on my trusty trobairitz steed (or “bike” in 21st century speak). I needed to be quiet with nature to reflect on the amazing experiences of my last week. I sat by “Rose” (the old barge wreck) and thought of the bustling community that would have been here many years ago. A tune reached out to me on the breeze with a lilting sea shanty feel…..I thought of Stephen Hough’s words again and smiled…..

October Music Notes

Catherine Shrubshall

“Oh how wonderful – I’ve ALWAYS wanted to play the saxophone” is a frequent reaction when someone I’ve just met discovers I’m a saxophonist. Of course my response is usually: “So why don’t you then?”…and with a twinkle in my eye but with serious intent, the gauntlet is thrown down and the challenge set…..

All those of us over school leaving age (!) will, I am sure, resonate with the next part of the conversation, which often goes something like: “My music teacher at school told me I was tone deaf” (followed by hysterical laughter) or “I’m FAR too old and stupid now”, or “I should have done it when I was a kid”. These simply spoken words show the damage that was done in an instant by the more dismissive or insensitive teachers of old. However, in this new age of creative and positive educational approaches, we don’t need to buy into anything self-limiting……and my ‘mission statement’ as it were, is to always be prepared to encourage someone on their journey of lifelong learning, at what ever age. “Well, lets not dwell too long on those haunting words of a bitter and misguided music teacher now. There is no time like the present to start doing something that you’ve always wished you could do!” A conversation about self-development, choice and living your dream can go in many directions. It is always interesting to learn about someone’s life journey to date…. and sometimes I even find a new adult student signing up for a lesson!

Since arriving back in Essex (2 heady years ago now), I have encountered the aforementioned scene many times, and one never knows where a simple verbal exchange will lead to. There have been many reverberations which have surprised me…. including no fewer than 13 (a lucky number for some….and apparently Taylor Swift and I have this – at least – in common!) adult students from the local area signing up for lessons with me. Out of those 13 there are several complete beginners, all taking on the ‘new skill’ quest, and loving every minute of it. Their ages range from 20 to 80, and each player comes with their own distinctive stylistic preference….I enjoy this diversity immensely as it keeps me on my toes as an adaptive and flexible teacher/coach.

Life has a way of presenting learning opportunities in any situation if you are open to them, and I too continually learn so much from those I teach. I am privileged to be able to pass on my deep passion, of both Music and of my Saxophones and Clarinets, to my enthusiastic students (and they call this work!). I think by now you’ve gathered that I am a firm believer in self-development dear reader, and I do take that proverbial spoon of my own medicine on occasion by aiming to shake off the old self-limitations which swoop down out of the blue like a Harry Potter Dementor!. This self-reflection helps me empathise with my more mature students, and I can really see how my teaching and communication skills have developed from when I was a very shiny and new younger musician. How fabulously timed all this is with the sense of freedom and expansion that I am feeling through teaching and playing these days (aka “Tricksy Trobairitz”).

So – with the thought that you are never too old to learn (even if it’s not the saxophone you’ve always wanted to play!), perhaps you may feel inspired to shrug off those bothersome self-limiting thoughts and to try something different….to expand your horizons and find another exciting way to express and embrace the joy of ageless learning. I do hope so!