When entering the Running Shed for the first time, it leaves one with a sense of fascination. It is hard to capture the spatial situation: there are the high ceilings, the unsizeable dimensions, the old trains from different decades, and the people who have appropriated the space – those who know the shed best. One of them is Nature Boy.
“I am known as “Nature Boy”, I live here in the railway compound. I came here eight years ago and what I have learned from this place has gotten me this far. I do art for living. That’s what I do. I do graffiti, illustrations and paintings, too. It gave me a lot of experience and now I like to explore more. I could use my experience to help other people innovate, potentiate the creativity of the youth and let them see that life is not just all about struggle, but also about what you have got in your hand and what you can do with it.”
As a child, I always wanted to be as high as the ceiling in order to have a good view and be able to observe any situation. Like a hammock. A platform that can serve as both, a place of communication, a meeting point, and a stage, as well as a retreat.
Hanging out with Nature is a 4-7m stage, a hammock hanging down from the ceiling of the Running Shed. It is made out of liana sticks and 400 cleaning rags, which are second-hand T-shirts. These were cut into fabric strings. Two traditional crafts were interwoven: The Austrian Fleckerlteppich, a carpet made out of old fabric and the Nigerian basket weaving. The piece creates a place and a waypoint within the Running Shed. There are two levels, one to observe any situation, to get some distance from everyday life, the other one as a meeting point for exchanging experiences and a stage for every talent.
It is interesting what happens to an artwork in which there is so much of yourself, when you leave it on its own. Sometimes the change is important, in order to be able to see different aspects, it always has to move, to move on.
*Liana sticks, fabric strings made out of cleaning rags/second-hand T-shirts
