Faber-Castell Collage
“In 2020 I had the honour of creating an artwork for members of the famous Faber-Castell family and heirs of the world's largest and oldest manufacturers of pens, pencils, office & art supplies headquartered in Stein, Germany. I was commissioned by the Faber-Castells to create a collage about the life of their ‘Oma’, their grandmother Countess Katharina von Faber-Castell. This collage is a visual representation of her eventful journey through life.”
Chapter 1 :
Die Schweiz [Switzerland]
This excerpt of the collage represents her early childhood growing up in the picturesque mountains of Switzerland with the oldest photo of Nina playing the accordion.
Chapter 2 :
Berlin
This excerpt of the collage represents her adolescence. Nina moved to Berlin when she was only 18 years old to complete her training as a concert pianist. This is where she met Count Roland von Faber-Castell who instantly fell in love with her.
Chapter 3:
Traumhochzeit
[Dream Wedding]
This excerpt of the collage shows her wedding with Count Roland in 1938 and their new home in the Faber-Castell castle ‘Schloss Stein’ near Nuremberg, Bavaria.
Chapter 4 :
World War ll
At the beginning of this project, the Faber-Castells handed me two large bags full of family albums, a folder of Nina’s drawings, historical books and biographies alongside a bound collection of letters between Count Roland and Countess Nina they wrote to each other during the Second World War. The letters which the newly wedded couple wrote to each other while being separated by the war are filled with fear and uncertainty as well as hope that the war would be over soon and things return back to ‘normal’. But the war did not end quickly and went on for another six devastating years until the Allies defeated Nazi Germany in 1945; when slowly, bit by bit, the horrible crimes that were committed during the war started to surface and Germany’s citizens began the long reconstruction process of what was left of the country after WW II.
Chapter 5:
Nachkriegszeit [Post-War Period]
The book ‘Das Zeugenhaus’ [House of Witnesses by Christiane Kohl] was an important piece in the puzzle in putting together Nina’s life story as it painted a very clear picture of what Germany was like during the ‘Nachkriegszeit’ - the post war period. Nuremberg, where the Faber-Castells lived, played an especially important role in Germany’s post-war history. The city was chosen by the International Military Tribunal to host the Nuremburg Trials; held for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice on such charges as crimes against peace and against humanity.
According to the book ‘Haus of Witnesses’, the Faber-Castells large hunting lodge became an exclusive venue to host soirees that would entertain the high society of Nuremberg including the occupying American soldiers. The end of the war liberated Countess Katharina who plunged herself back into a social life, entertaining her guests by playing the piano and singing her songs.er it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Chapter 6:
Mutterschaft [Motherhood]
This excerpt of the collage shows Nina with her six children who lived both in the castle in Stein and in Switzerland.
Chapter 7:
Lebensende [Twighlight Years]
This excerpt of the collage shows Nina’s later life. She died in her beloved house in Küsnacht, Switzerland in 1994.
According to Swiss psychologist and my personal hero Dr Carl Gustav Jung, we all have a shadow aspect to us which is the unconscious, unknown dark side of the personality that the conscious ego does not identify with. We all carry parts within us we have disowned. I know from my own experience with years of depression and the recovery from disordered eating what if feels like to be stuck in dark hole and what happens if we don’t deal with what’s going on underneath the surface of our external behaviours and patterns.
Countess Nina encountered her own dark demons with whom she battles her entire life and the person who I believe could have truly helped her overcome some of her struggles was none other than Dr Carl Jung himself who, coincidentally, happened to have been Nina’s very close neighbour in Kuesnacht for many years. He lived less than a kilometer away from her on the same street, both sharing the same view of the picturesque Alpes. In his work, Dr Jung focused on the symbolism of his patients’ dreams and creative expressions. I can only imagine he would have loved seeing Nina’s very symbolic drawings and scribbles that make up the background and patterns of this collage including a few Mandala shaped structures just like the one right in the centre of the artwork. He noticed that his patients seemed to have reoccurring dreams about Mandalas prior to a period of transformation. By observing their dreams and art he could then help them with the struggles and conflicts in their waking life by deciphering the symbolism of this language of our subconscious. As per Jungian psychology, the geometric patterns of a Mandala are symbols used for reunifying the Self. Just like the Mandala, this collage is also based on Sacred Geometry… if you look at the artwork as a whole, it shows the Fibonacci Spiral or ‘Golden Ratio’ as the structure symbolizing the timeline of Nina’s story and the ever-unfurling nature of life. The Sacred Geometry arises out of the set of numbers from the Fibonacci series; these numbers, ratios and shapes have been used to explain creation, growth and harmony – all found in the number of petals of a flower, in architecture, shells and spiralling galaxies. And for lovers of music, it’s makes up a beautiful harmony on the musical scale. By using the Fibonacci sequence, I was able to ‘infuse’ Nina’s collage with her passion for music…
Life is like a spiral, constantly unfurling, we are not meant to stay in the same space, both emotionally and psychologically, we are meant to evolve, expand and grow. All we need is the courage, willingness and openness to heal and allow life to unfurl towards our highest potential. My hope is that by sharing some of her story I can shine a light on some of the darkness and keep her memory alive for her family.
-THE END-
