Ruby Döern

Recognition In Casual Divinity

A work in Hör zu, ich erzähle dir was / “Listen, I’ll tell you something.” a series of oil paintings depicting a variety of animals specific to stories from the artists’ ancestry across Central Europe.

“Recognition in Casual Divinity is a story for my Opa, who grew up in Bremen, Germany and travelled to Canada with his siblings during WWII. This piece is an amalgamation of the research I investigated into Bremen; a combination of architecture on the town church, St.-Petri-Dom, and the Bremen town hall. The architect, Lüder von Bentheim, reconstructed it in 1612 after it had stood for over 200 years, designing the new front facade with religious and political scenes of the reinterpreted late renaissance style known as ‘Weser Renaissance’, a distinct and beautiful style of this region I wanted to highlight in this work. The bottom left corner of my painting is the reason I felt so drawn to this particular story: the cathedral mouse, a symbol carved in the east choir on the right wall of the cathedral, dating from the second half of the 11th century. Multiple stories have different claims for why the mouse is there; a sign for good craftsmanship, or a protective sigil against evil. I chose to interpret this little mouse as a form of divine protection, keeping the land of this town safe and a way to symbolize that my paintings and research are protected by my Opa’s spirit. ”