Photograph by Caitlin Selby.
The work of Anna Von Mertens occupies a very particular intersection, where rigorous system meets the unfettered imagination. She has, in the course of her highly varied career, stitched star paths that occurred on key dates in American history, extracted emojis from a text exchange with a friend and rendered them gorgeously in colored pencil; and made hand-dyed depictions of the aurora borealis, “treating the skies like a cosmic mood ring.”¹ For her Portraits series, she researched contemporary auratic photography, a New Age–affiliated technique that relies on a special camera. The subject places their hands on electromagnetic sensors, and these readings are then translated into color wavelengths, onto which the image of the person is superimposed.
Enthusiasts claim that these auras can be read, as a psychic would, and have developed a color-coding system to use in interpretation. Fascinated by this collision of pseudoscience and abstraction, Von Mertens set about making textile versions of historic portraits—the Mona Lisa, Velázquez’s Philip IV, Whistler’s Mother—giving an aura to each subject in what she considered an appropriate palette. “While I admit to an element of the ridiculous,” Von Mertens says, “these works are sincere portraits.”²
Mona Lisa’s Aura, after Leonardo da Vinci in hand-dyed, hand-stitched cotton. Designed and made by Anna Von Mertens, USA, 2009.
25.75" L x 34.75" H
65.4cm L x 88.3cm H
FA140
Courtesy of Elizabeth Leach Gallery
Marilyn Monroe's aura (II.23), after Warhol in hand-dyed, hand-stitched cotton. Designed and made by Anna Von Mertens, USA, 2009.
35.5" L x 35.5" H
FA153
Marilyn Monroe's aura (II.31), after Warhol in hand-dyed, hand-stitched cotton. Designed and made by Anna Von Mertens, USA, 2009.
35.5" L x 35.5" H
FA154