Tabea Schendekehl

 Water and Flour.

Time.

Waiting.

Fermenting.

Shaping.

Resting.

Heat.

Loaf.

Loaf of Bread in a cast iron pot

Baking and Art. Yes, for me, those two go hand in hand. They have so much in common. From starting out with simple ingredients, working with them and letting them rest, through to the final product– the process of baking and making art has similar steps. At least, for me it does. Feel free to scroll down and learn a bit about myself and my art and art making process.

active sourdough starter from above

This is what the active sourdough starter looks like, lots of happy bubbles

Honestly, I think it’s pretty amazing how many different things you can make out of just water and flour depending on the ratio and how long you allow it to ferment. Just like with art, it can be so diverse even if we’re all using the same “ingredients”.

Collages of Sourdough Bread

Pizza dough and Pizza

Pictures of two different cakes

Hi there! Thank you so much for stopping by!

First, I want to tell you a bit about my artistic journey. Aside from my love for baking and cooking, I am also a high performance athlete and I make art.

I make art. I am an artist. I am not sure if there is a difference between those two, or if the only difference is that you either actually call yourself an artist or you don’t. I have always struggled with that distinction. I am not sure when I started being an artist. Is it something you become or something you have always been? I am not sure. I think the scary thing about actually calling yourself an artist is that you might be more susceptible to criticism. People might say that you aren’t actually an artist. But then again, who gets to decide what an artist is? It’s all kind of squishy. Enough with the rambling.

 

Sacred, a space for thinking, maturing my thoughts

What is sacred to me? I would say that something that is very important to me is working out. As blatant as that sounds. I have been doing (different) sports since I’ve been little. Ten years ago, I started rowing and eventually fell in love with it. For me, rowing is so much more than working out. It has shaped my life in significant ways. I would not be a student at the UW if I didn’t row. The community in rowing, commitment of my teams, and the love and trust for my teammates; friends. Rowing makes me happy, even though sometimes it’s hard and I need to take a break from it, at least once a year. In the end, I always return to my sport. Rowing (and other activities that include repetitive motions like erging, running, and biking) gives me a space to think. Many of my creative ideas come to me while working out. Even though some would say that it should be my priority to focus fully on being present in the moment, my mind finds a certain peace in wandering through my thoughts while doing that repetitive nothing and gliding through the space of nature (preferably). Therefore, my practice of working out daily, is sacred to me. Without it, I would be a different person and artist.

 

 

My Roots, some of my work, and a Poem

Das Lügengedicht – Unknown

Dunkel war’s, der Mond schien helle,
Schnee lag auf der grünen Flur,
als ein Auto blitzeschnelle
lagnsam um die Ecke fuhr.
drinnen saßen stehend Leute,
schweigend ins Gespräch vertieft,
als ein totgeschoßner Hase
auf der Sandbank Schlittschuh lief.
Auf einer roten Bank,
die blau angestrichen war,
saß ein blondgelockter Jüngling
mit kohlrabenschwarzem Haar.
Neben ihm ‘ne alte Schrulle,
die kaum erst sechzehn war.
Diese aß ‘ne Butterstulle,
die mit Schmalz bestrichen war.
Droben auf dem Apfelbaume,
der sehr süße Birnen trug,
hing des Frühlings letzte Pflaume,
und an Nüssen noch genug.
Eine Kuh, die saß im Schwalbennest
mit sieben jungen Ziegen,
die feierten ihr Jubelfest
und fingen an zu fliegen.
Der Esel zog Pantoffeln an,
ist übers Haus geflogen,
und wenn das nicht die Wahrheit ist,
so ist es doch gelogen.

Notebook Page

Photo of a 6x5 grid of small color squares

 

I don’t think my work always needs to “make sense” at a first glance. I want the viewer to go deeper, to ask (themselves) questions. I do not want to make art that is just nice to look at. I am not sure if I am always successful with that. Sometimes, my works might end up having a meaning for me which stays hidden from the viewer, which is okay for me. In the same way, not everyone will understand the poem that I have included. It is special to me because it was the first and pretty much the only poem that I know by heart. The poem does not make sense, not even in German. That is the point of it, it is a poem of lies, a nonsense poem. However, maybe somewhere in there we might be able to find some sense or hidden meaning? Who knows… it is unknown where the poem came from and who the author was. I am not sure how much the poem and its not-sense-making has influenced me. Maybe I just like the poem. And maybe that’s enough. I guess this is a poem just for a poems sake and nothing else. I guess sometimes I enjoy art for arts sake. But other times I don’t. And isn’t that the beauty of art? That you can make it whatever you’d like.

 

 

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Tabea Schendekehl Copyright © 2020 by Timea Tihanyi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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