Annegret Soltau is a German Artist who works with photographs, performances and video. Photomontages of her own body and face sewn over or collaged with black thread are the most well-known works of the German artist. Soltau’s method of analysis is strictly connected to the idea of destruction and reconstruction of her image. This process drives her to a new form of Photo-montage where the main ingredient used to stick together all the pieces is not glue but a simple black thread. In this way her work can be described as a product of handcraft.

“My most important aim is to include bodily processes in my work and to use myself as a model – because I can go the furthest with myself”

In her project “Selbst” the Soltau ties up her face with tight threads of black silk, like a cocoon, of which she makes a photographic record that is subsequently stitched by following a geometric pattern that resembles a sign. The result is a type of self-harming self-portrait: as the string cuts into the sensitive skin of her face, the thread distorts its shape but also enhances its beauty. Annegret Soltau writes her story as a woman on the blank page of her face; it is a history of conflict, impulsive reactions to the family environment, and to position of women in the social context, to gender pressures and discrimination.

Selbst, 19. 

“These are my first projects using thread in the context of photography. Using gray silk thread, I overstitched self-portraits and created a filigree of threads over my own face. I started with a photograph taken during a performance piece, and stitched over the thread in the photo using real thread.” Annegret Soltau

The most complex and elaborate project of hers was “Generativ” (1994-2005). Where she created pieces from photographs of the naked bodies of her “female chain”which composes of her grandmother, her mother, her daughter and herself. “Generativ” shows the whole span of bodily change between young and old, between the fading body of age and the emerging body in puberty.

“My main interest is the integration of body process in my work, in order to connect body and spirit as equal parts” Annegret Soltau