The Remembrance of Gukkenwald Puzzle
The remembrance of Gukkenwald Puzzle (The peculiar death of Valerie
Nina Barnes’s art is caught between two natural extremes: the stark strangeness of her native Norway and the lush jungle of her adopted state of Georgia. She moved to Athens, Georgia, in 2002.
“The remembrance of Gukkenwald (The peculiar death of Valerie Marie Osten Chafer)” comes from a not-yet-finished series of works based on a writing experiment of Barnes’s. Gukkenwald in 1919, as you might guess, is not a real place, and Barnes has populated it with the inhabitants of a sanatorium.
There’s a lot to look at in the scene, with a busy lake taking up the bottom third of the image, animal life intruding at different scales, snowy hills, sharp mountains, and plant life everywhere, sitting atop mountains in poses we usually associate with saints.
1000 Pieces
Finished size: 19.25" x 26.625"
Linen pieces w/ low-glare Matte finish
Age: 13+
Made in United States of America