show
Constanza Kramer
EAT.SLEEP.DRIFT.REPEAT
Constanza Camila Kramer Garfias is an accomplished textile artist whose 2023 Autodrift series includes some her most daring and dynamic works to date.
This series merges notions of traditional textiles with cutting-edge drift-style car racing, handcraft with industrial production.
Eat, Sleep, Drift, and Repeat is her first solo exhibition, now on view at Gallery PERG in Ludwigsburg, Germany. For more than a decade Kramer Garfias has been weaving jacquard, a technique that can be traced back to fifteenth-century Italy. Building upon traditional handweaving and luxury textile production, she has honed and developed her methods and incorporated a multitude of materials. The artist visualizes her textiles— an artform typically associated with traditional historical themes to treat modern subjects such as car races and automobiles. Kramer Garfias has previously broken the norms of her medium with the Autobahn series, in which metallic yarns and hand-deconstruction were used to encapsulate the speed of racing, geometricized checkered flags, and leather and sheen of the cars.
She has reached a new level with the Autodrift series, which delves deeply into drift driving, which was pioneered in 1970s Japan and popularized in the West through, for example, the Fast and Furious film series. The complexity of contemporary drift races moves far beyond these sources.
Kramer Garfias is drawn to drift’s artistry, contigent materials, egalitarian structure, and mix of professional and amateur, familial relationships. She worked with the eminent drift racer, Alexandra Schlecht, founder of the German Swabian Drift Foxes. Schlecht introduced the artist to modern drift events such as lead-chase races, during which two drivers must maneuver in unison, performing choreography while their cars remain in close physical contact.
The automobiles glide and pirouette with grace across wet surfaces, creating, as Kramer Garfias puts it, “a magical moment when an everyday object transforms into a performance.” Their shapes, replete with visible scars and damage from previous races, blur and distort from turning so quickly. This image is hard to follow with the eye, but its compelling dynamism enthralled her so much that she wanted to capture it in her art.
The Autodrift textiles are complex and changeable depending on the vantage point of the viewer. Kramer Garfias uses a special technique on jacquard, which is normally made in a standard square format based on its loom, to create more organic forms. The artist drafts and designs her textiles, collaborating with the high-end producers Tessitura Taborelli to bring them to fruition. Once she receives the fabric, Kramer Garfias deconstructs its surface, creating wavy edges and freehanging fringe and adding metallic accents. The result are objects of astonishing beauty, scale, and vitality, the remains of an ephemeral moment.
Born in Chile and raised in Germany, Kramer Garfias now lives and works in Munich. She was trained in textile design and fabrication at the university of arts and design Burg Giebichenstein in Saale, Germany.
Eat, Sleep, Drift, and Repeat showcases her recent creations from the Autodrift series and runs from November 23 through January 9, 2023, at Gallery PERG, located at Asperger Str. 12, 71634, Ludwigsburg, Germany.
This series merges notions of traditional textiles with cutting-edge drift-style car racing, handcraft with industrial production.
Eat, Sleep, Drift, and Repeat is her first solo exhibition, now on view at Gallery PERG in Ludwigsburg, Germany. For more than a decade Kramer Garfias has been weaving jacquard, a technique that can be traced back to fifteenth-century Italy. Building upon traditional handweaving and luxury textile production, she has honed and developed her methods and incorporated a multitude of materials. The artist visualizes her textiles— an artform typically associated with traditional historical themes to treat modern subjects such as car races and automobiles. Kramer Garfias has previously broken the norms of her medium with the Autobahn series, in which metallic yarns and hand-deconstruction were used to encapsulate the speed of racing, geometricized checkered flags, and leather and sheen of the cars.
She has reached a new level with the Autodrift series, which delves deeply into drift driving, which was pioneered in 1970s Japan and popularized in the West through, for example, the Fast and Furious film series. The complexity of contemporary drift races moves far beyond these sources.
Kramer Garfias is drawn to drift’s artistry, contigent materials, egalitarian structure, and mix of professional and amateur, familial relationships. She worked with the eminent drift racer, Alexandra Schlecht, founder of the German Swabian Drift Foxes. Schlecht introduced the artist to modern drift events such as lead-chase races, during which two drivers must maneuver in unison, performing choreography while their cars remain in close physical contact.
The automobiles glide and pirouette with grace across wet surfaces, creating, as Kramer Garfias puts it, “a magical moment when an everyday object transforms into a performance.” Their shapes, replete with visible scars and damage from previous races, blur and distort from turning so quickly. This image is hard to follow with the eye, but its compelling dynamism enthralled her so much that she wanted to capture it in her art.
The Autodrift textiles are complex and changeable depending on the vantage point of the viewer. Kramer Garfias uses a special technique on jacquard, which is normally made in a standard square format based on its loom, to create more organic forms. The artist drafts and designs her textiles, collaborating with the high-end producers Tessitura Taborelli to bring them to fruition. Once she receives the fabric, Kramer Garfias deconstructs its surface, creating wavy edges and freehanging fringe and adding metallic accents. The result are objects of astonishing beauty, scale, and vitality, the remains of an ephemeral moment.
Born in Chile and raised in Germany, Kramer Garfias now lives and works in Munich. She was trained in textile design and fabrication at the university of arts and design Burg Giebichenstein in Saale, Germany.
Eat, Sleep, Drift, and Repeat showcases her recent creations from the Autodrift series and runs from November 23 through January 9, 2023, at Gallery PERG, located at Asperger Str. 12, 71634, Ludwigsburg, Germany.
