Matthias Kühn

Shroud

Through my years of studying, I deal in my work with depression, which I went through in the past. This led to my exam work “Shroud”. The craft concept follows the idea to replicate the physicality of textiles in metal. In this, I can transport emotions through the movement of the textile. Emotions, that transport the feelings of depression.

One thing a lot of people who are not affected by depression don’t understand is, that depression does not necessarily equal sadness. To me, it always felt like nothing had value and nothing mattered. The only thing that had value to me was art. In art, I found sense in the nonsense surrounding me. By approaching this topic in my art, I found a way to speak about it, which helped me get out of the depression. Seeing other people speak about their experiences helped too. In particular, the rapper Notorious B.I.G. in his song “Suicidal Thoughts”. I included this song that was important to me in my exam work by linking up with two dance students who interpreted this and other songs. Based on their interpretation I did my sketches. For the final piece I used different techniques like welding grinding and bending.