Martina ZIEGENTHALER

Martina Ziegenthaler’s interest in textiles began early on. An apprenticeship as a dressmaker was followed by training as a directrice and then her first professional activity was designing and making patterns for swimwear. She made the transition from fashion design to art by studying at the Nuremberg Art Academy from 1993 to 1999 under Professor Hanns Herpich, whose master student she became.

She analyses the ways of seeing and meanings of clothing and accessories in terms of their function in human and social contexts. She scrutinises the visual habits of textile patterns or forms by irritating them, for example by transferring tablecloth patterns onto bath mats. She strips them of their superficially decorative functions and declutters them to create space for her own stories. In doing so, she remains true to the world of textile materials and techniques, but creates her own vocabulary and tools.

She is a printer, a painter and creates objects and installations.