Hey! Whose name is that at the top of the paper?? Why….it’s meeeeee!!!
That’s right, I’m in the Südwest Presse newspaper here in Horb! And no, it’s not for public intoxication, disorderly conduct, or shoplifting dark chocolate. It’s for being the new Artist at the Antonie-Leins Residency. Apparently my mere presence is newsworthy!
This story actually began a couple of weeks ago. My friend and Residency mate Helena and I went to Gleis süd, or South Track coffee shop for a delicious cappuccino and tiny ice cream cone. We were walking home when we heard someone calling to us in German and running to catch up. We stopped. It was an older gentleman with a kind face. Helena spoke to him in German. His name is Hans-Michael Griess and he’s a reporter at the local paper. He heard that there was a new Artist at the Residency and he wanted to arrange a time to interview me. (WOW!) He was going on a vacation or holiday so we made plans to meet upon his return.
Last week he stopped by the house. The three of us sat in the courtyard and had coffee and snacks and chatted. What a nice man! He’s a retired chemist, I think, and now he works part time as a reporter at the paper. His wife is a school teacher and together they’re helping families from Ukraine. Hans-Michael was surprised and disappointed to learn that my stay at the Residency would only be for three months and not the usual three years. I explained that I was filling a vacancy that emerged after another Artist had to leave the Residency early.
We talked about art and and the different ideas that I had for upcoming projects. One idea that he liked a lot was my plan to create small clay figures and place them in various places around the village where people can find them and take them home. Some of the small figures, or figurines, might even be inspired by actual people that I’ve met during my recent visit. So from inception to reception this would be a wonderful community-based project!
And I will not be firing the clay so if a piece isn’t taken indoors it will eventually disintegrate and return to the earth, which is sort of a statement on the impermanence of human existence. What….too heavy?
I imagine that after several of these little sculptures have been found there would be people in the village looking for new figures. And how great is that – to have people in a community keeping their eyes open for art! Another facet of this idea would be to include a QR code or maybe a link to a page on my website where people can find out more information about the piece – the date it was created, the title, the inspiration, etc. So that’s one project that I’m working on. There are others too, and I’ll tell you about them in the fullness of time.
I enjoyed meeting and talking to Hans-Michael. He has a genuine interest in art, and his eyes light up when he imagines the impact that a given idea would have on the community.
Since our meeting I’ve been checking to see when his article would be published. Well…the newspaper article finally came out last Friday!
That’s me and Helena sitting in the courtyard behind the Residency on the day we were interviewed. The article is in German, obviously, but here is the English translation – which may be a little choppy because translations are usually a little rough around the edges:
My Bonnie came over the Ocean
Culture: Bonnie Lee Turner is the new resident of the Antoine Lens Artists’ Home. Her new project: Save the clay figures! By Hans Michael Greiss
There is a lot of activity in the Antonie-Leins-Künstlerinnenhaus in Horb. For three months, the renowned American artist Bonnie Lee Turner completes the three-girl house, because Mimosa Pale floated away on love wings back to her Finnish homeland.
Hundreds of Turner’s paintings and mosaics now adorn walls and interiors, preferably in her native New England states on the East Coast of the United States. She would like to be related to her namesake William, but so far she has searched in vain for a corresponding notch in her family tree. Art lovers in Horb will remember her stay four years ago, when she refined a weathered wooden bench with a metallic sheen in the Artpark near the elementary school, inspired by Michael Widmann. If you follow the blog on her homepage “bonnieleeturner.com”, you’ll find a declaration of love for the Neckar town. She became aware of Horb at the time when she discovered the “Kunstort Eleven” in Starzach, which Monika Golla and Frank Fierke founded as part of an international exchange when their scholarship ended at the Antonie Leins House. In a few weeks one gains more contacts to international artists there than during longer stays elsewhere, Turner enthused during the visit of the SÜDWEST PRESSE.
Having attracted attention in the USA with her large-scale facade designs on hospitals and churches and works in public spaces, the artist wants to spend her time in “small” Horb devoting herself to small works. She has in mind, for example, to form hand-sized figures out of clay, which she does not want to let burn, and to set them up in the city center in places that she particularly likes. In doing so, she is exposing them to decay, because unprotected they decay in the rain and turn back into natural soil. In dry indoor spaces, however, they have a long chance of survival. Bonnie therefore invites all citizens to look for the figurines and to rediscover charming places in Horb.
She finds the spatial proximity “wall to wall” to the cultural center “Kloster” extremely appealing, to be able to enter into dialogue with local artists. Gladly she will follow an invitation of the neighbors. She could well imagine photographing them, working on them in drawings back in the USA and coming back to Horb with an exhibition as a project, since she has learned to appreciate the connecting power in contact with other artists during her already long work.
Any language hurdles that arose were confidently overcome by roommate Helena Hartmann, who was happy to consolidate the Facebook contacts with Turner that had existed since 2017 in a house community. Her three-year fellowship ends in the fall, she said, but it was friend Bonnie who discovered the tempting cappuccino and croissants with ice cream at Track South. She is currently preparing for her post-Horb period by searching for and setting up new workplaces in her home town of Ahaus and the cosmopolitan city of Munich. There, fellow artists Steffi Müller and Klaus Erich Dietl were waiting for the continuation of the Horber collaboration. With Sarah Ines, they are currently rehearsing new feminist performances, which are hidden behind masquerades. It is still undetermined whether the scheduling will allow a farewell performance in Horb.
(Newspaper: Südwestpresse /
Neckar-Chronik , Schillerstraße 22, 72160 Horb am Neckar)
Just wanted to share the exciting news! More things to say – will Post again as soon as I have time!
Bonnie