TALK: Materials Club with Maren Krings
Materials Club Talks invite practitioners to share new and interesting materials practices. Each month a guest speaker joins us to share their materials practice. Their presentation will be followed by an open discussion that will delve deeper into our guest's personal values and motivations for their work, with a focus on materiality and our current global context.
The third speaker to join us is Maren Krings a German photographer and climate impact storyteller whose work seeks solutions to socio-ecological impacts to help mitigate the current climate crisis.
Krings has a B.F.A. from the Savannah College of Art & Design (USA), and her work has been published in international media outlets such as Stern, WWF, The Outdoor Journal and Rotary among others, as well as displayed internationally at the Rencontres d’Arles, the Hemp Museum Amsterdam, Bauhaus University Weimar, the BOKU University Vienna, the Museum of Fine Art Tallahassee, and others.
She is the author of four books. The latest, `H is for Hemp´, is the first one to reach international recognition and impact. In this book she reflects on her six-year journey into the worldwide rediscovery of industrial hemp in 26 countries and four continents. Krings photographed more than 200 projects and interviewed more than 80 industry-experts to show the plant’s potential to mitigate the socio-ecological crisis. The encyclopaedia-style book is printed on tree-free hemp paper, exclusively produced by German paper manufacturer Hahnemühle.
Influenced by her experience living and working with Indigenous Peoples in Latin America and Northern Europe, in 2006 Krings founded the Center for Arts and Humanity. The curation of exhibitions, art-projects (such as WE AR’T) and the residencies for artists seek to create a modern crossroad between socially engaged art, Indigenous traditional ecological wisdom and our modern challenges brought about by the climate crisis.
Where is this event?
This event will be held online via Zoom. You are invited you to join us from 6pm for a short introduction before Maren speakers about her work. This will be followed by an informal conversation facilitated by our evening's co-host Clare Hewitt.
Who is it for?
Anyone can join us at Materials Club, so if you are an individual, business, artist, designer, materials scientist, student, academic, maker or anyone else in between, you are welcome.
What is Materials Club?
Materials Club has been active as a community-led research group in Birmingham since 2019. Now in its fourth year, it has become a creative-led research space exploring questions related to our ecological future through deep material practices.
We support and cultivate projects that look to use materials in new, different, and sustaining ways. This includes working with waste, nature, and within the values of circular design. We encourage collaboration and open conversation allowing new knowledge to be shared and developed collectively. This is a space to be inspired, learn, engage, and become part of a growing community.
How else can I get involved?
Keep an eye on our Instagram page @materials_club or drop us an email to find out more.
Come and join the community!
