‘Halbgeschwister’ is part of a series of paintings and tapestries that tell the stories of six half brothers and sisters. This tapestry shows how one of the brothers misses his siblings during obligatory military service.
‘Halbgeschwister’ began as a painting, which formed the starting point for a woven tapestry. Like a comic strip, the tapestry is made up of four scenes that explore the young man’s emotions in different situations. Leonie Schneider uses her imagination to create characters and narratives. The military and the feeling of fellowship that soldiers experience remind the artist of the strong bonds between siblings.
The tapestry is a copy of one of Schneider’s paintings. She prefers to paint directly on canvas, occasionally making a preliminary sketch to determine the composition. She spends hours painstakingly creating detailed and colourful scenes, without thinking about the subsequent translation into a tapestry.
The challenge in the TextielLab was finding the yarns that best represent the look and feel of the original painting. Product developer Judith Peskens introduced the artist to different weaving structures and materials such as reflective and recycled yarn that can produce special visual effects. The reflective yarn selected for this tapestry catches the light when the viewer changes position. Particular attention was paid to the faces of the characters during the development process, as these often need extra emphasis to bring them to life in a woven fabric. Facial details were accentuated in the digital image, and then converted by the computer programme into weaving instructions for the jacquard loom.
Originally from Munich, Germany, artist and painter Leonie Schneider (1993) is now based in The Hague. She studied fine art at the Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague and graduated in 2018. Schneider is fascinated by fiction and is herself a true storyteller. Family relationships are a recurring theme in her work. In each painting, she sharpens her characters’ personality, using the family constellation therapy method as inspiration. The result is a portrait of social behaviour. When translated into woven fabric, new dimensions arise that add depth to the image.
‘Intersection – Rademakers Gallery’, Amsterdam, February -March 2021
‘Art Rotterdam – Presented by Rademakers Gallery’, Rotterdam, 2021
‘Leonie Schneider – Family Stories’, Museum MORE at Ruurlo Castle, June -September 2022
