My Joseph Beuys Story

Joseph Beuys performing “I like America and It Likes Me” René Block Gallery, NYC, 1974 Photo: Caroline Tisdall

It’s hard to work with industrial felt and not be asked about references to Joseph Beuys, the German fighter pilot turned famous postwar artist that worked with many materials, but was especially known for his art made with felt and fat, and for his story of rebirth that told of his rescue by nomadic tribesmen who used these materials to heal his body after his plane crashed in the Crimea during the second world war.

My history with these materials lies with my family. On my father’s side is felt. My great grandfather, who emigrated to Canada from Germany in the late-ninteenth century, partnered with a German felt manufacturer to import felt from his homeland. He settled in Montreal and grew the family business as an agent for local felt mills. Felt is made for numerous industrial applications with production peaking during wartime when 90% of all felt manufactured went to the arms race for use in machine parts and munitions.

Meanwhile, on my mother’s side… During World War II, my grandmother volunteered with the war effort by collecting cooking grease from her neighbours. She kept a vat of fat in her kitchen that was picked up regularly by other volunteers for the glycerins found in lards and such were used in the manufacture of explosives.

It could be said that allied ammunition made from granddad’s felt and Gran’s fat shot down a particular German plane over the Black Sea. KW

Works War 2 poster