ROT / WEISS / HOCKEN / HEIM

In ROT / WEISS / HOCKEN / HEIM, Bea Meyer thematizes two quite divergent areas of social life, which are closely interwoven with prejudices and clichéd concepts: Formula One Motor Racing and breastfeeding.

In the first part of the book, Meyer presents the ground plans of all nineteen Formula One racetracks, from Australia through Germany all the way to Brazil, and translates them into knitted images. The routes are knitted with red wool and surrounded by a white-yellowish background. Meyer uses knitting for another purpose, not to

produce sweaters or mittens but instead pictures whose formal quality reveals them to be independent commentaries and creations within an artistic context. She transfers the coordinates of a sport reserved exclusively for men onto a terrain designated in the widest sense as belonging to women. In the large number of pictures, it becomes clear how limited is the freedom to maneuver during the race, how narrow and prescribed is the competitive sequence. The circuit becomes a knitted pattern.

The second part of this book is based on breastfeeding transcripts. For the viewer, however, this special context scarcely becomes apparent. What may be seen instead a abstract patterns which suggests conceptual or minimalist processes of pictorial invention, but not an intimate personal transcript of the breastfeeding behavior of a child.

Bea Meyer's ROT / WEISS / HOCKEN / HEIM was shortlisted by the Stiftung Buchkunst for the competition »Die schönsten deutschen Bücher 2006«.