Ann Bottcher - Works 2000-2020

Ann Bottcher's practice looks at folklore, Nazi ideology, ethnology, sanatoriums, and forest dieback, reproduced through drawings and craft in a remarkable study of nature and historical forms of reflection. At the center of Bottcher's imagery we find the spruce. Through exquisite craftsmanship, and with reference to romantic nationalism, the artist explores how aesthetic and political projections characterize notions of nature, and how such conceptions are taken up by countries, political movements, and other institutions. This publication reflects the role the spruce has served as a symbol for the formation of Nordic territorial claims and national identities.