Jeanette Sendler

Felt and performance art

'Having been trained as a ladies tailor at the Comic Opera in Berlin my background is rooted strongly in costumes and working with bodies.

The body is my stage.  It becomes the carrier of my Art, my voice and my expression in the same way that a canvas is to a painter.

During my exploration as a felt maker I began to step out of the conventions of traditional theatre and costume making.  My work became less and less literal.  I was entering into a more poetic world, where the performances become more sensual.

The costume themselves became the script and the performers dressed in them would animate and bring them to life.  In this sense my costumes had sculptural quality and they would become living breathing skins that would move in space.

The space they inhibited then became equally as important as all the other elements which make up a performance.  I was now collaborating with musicians, lighting designer, performers and other visual artists and my work had become Performance Art. I was rewarded a business start up grant by the Scottish Arts Council which helped me to set up my studio in Hat Making.  I work in straw, felt, fabric and sinamay.  Recently my work was featured in the first Scottish hat show called “Hat Walk”.

Jeanette Sendler’s geometric white felt hats are like 'walking art'.  She manages to create filigreed feathering and magical lace effects from her thick hand rolled white felt.  The effect is highly visual and contemporary.