Klaas van Kreis - die schwarze spinne

This book is the result of an interdisciplinary project at the HBK Braunschweig. In one course I had to make several sinister illustrations and in the second course I had to create an ebook for a new iPhone-app that our university is developing together with the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen. I therefore decided to choose an eerie text to work with – a world classic from Switzerland called »Die Schwarze Spinne« (The Black Spider) by Jeremias Gotthelf. Thus I could give the illustrations an additional value by creating them for a specific text, where I later could insert them and arrange in a narratorial and dramaturgical way along the story.

I reduced the storyline very drastically in the illustrations by just concentrating on the spider as the nonhuman protagonist of the narration. Excluding every person, helped me to focus on the cunning and menace of this monstrous insect. I wanted to create a mood with this illustrations, that helps the reader to feel the helplessness and impotence of the people in the text. An omnipresent spider inside and outside the story. As Gotthelf describes the scenery very carefully and adds lots of details I ended up making very ornamental and floral pictures, inspired by old wallpapers and fabric patterns.

TECHNICAL DATA

TITLE: ›Die Schwarze Spinne‹ (Jeremias Gotthelf)
MEDIUM: 12 digital illustrations & 1 titel-illustration for an iPhone App
BOOK: cooperation with the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen
SPACE OF TIME: 2009/10
MENTORING: Stefan Gunnesch & Jörg Petri
UNIVERSITY: HBK Braunschweig

PICTURE- AND TEXTCREDITS

ILLUSTRATIONS: Klaas van Kreis
TEXTS: Jeremias Gotthelf

If you want some more information about the project itself, please visit the website zenodot.info or click on the picture below.