Robert Mertens
Embracing Entropy, 2024
Quintuple Cloth, Crochet, Felted, Wool, steel wool, rust, speaker wire, speakers, 13 Minute Audio/Performance. Variable
Original sound score composed of recorded bodily sounds. Performers: Ryn Duong, Julia Vessey, Taylor Hanigosky, Katherine Mills-Yatsko
Robert Mertens
Sutre #3, 2024
Wool, Steel wire, Rust, embroidery, felting, suture stitches 144” x 72” x 2”
Sutre is a Norwegian word meaning to utter a complaining cry or a cry of suffering, this work is an exploration of how we chose to mark our skin compared to how our skin becomes marked due to life’s experiences.
Robert Mertens
Breathe, 2021
Wool, Steel wire, Speakers, Speaker Wire, rust 72" x 36" x 36"
BREATHE is an abstraction of the human body and a consideration of the body as an archeological site. Sound is used to give the piece a living presence, expressing the emotions I’ve felt after being diagnosed with cancer. The basket-form is a vessel not unlike the human body and the processes of felting are the external forces that form us as we grow. The random shaping of the felting process is a metaphor for a lack of control and the rusting process leads to the “death” of the form over time.
