Austrian artist Bettina Willnauer draws inspiration from the dreamlike, colorful worlds where humans and nature meet.
Her bold and vivid hand-tufted tapestries tell stories about the everyday
Bettina transforms everyday scenes into vibrant dreams and bold color compositions in her hand-tufted tapestries that are anything but boring.
What do you call your series of artworks?
– This series is called "Tulips are Fun, People are Boring". The tapestries tell stories about tulips and the multitudes of unspoken histories that lie behind their simple beauty.
What technique have you used?
– Various tufting guns and sheep wool.
What inspired you to create the artworks you have made for The Ode To?
– As the tulip has always been my favourite flower, I wanted to look into its history and found out that it is more relevant than ever. For all its playfulness and wonder, the tulip – like all flowers – is a reminder of the impermanence and transience of all things. Its recurring rhythm of blossoming, withering, dying, and blossoming over and over again contradicts the notion of eternal linear progress. Rather, the fascination for the tulip lies in the very interplay of being and becoming.
Can you tell us about your background and how you came to be an artist?
– After studying at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen I was more and more drawn to working with textiles, specifically tapestry making. I love creating dreamlike, colorful worlds where humans and nature meet. Everyday scenarios can be transformed into vivid dreams and bold color compositions.
How would you describe your art and aesthetics in three words?
– Lively, dreamy, bold
