Welcome to Milvus County

Solo show at Art in Barns of Lich

Lich, Germany | 2015

Under the title of the exhibition Welcome to Milvus County the artist collective 3Steps abducted the visitors in their color-intensive street art world. The old dilapidated meat packing factory in Lich was the perfect place for urban art in context to the Kunst in Licher Scheunen (Art in Barns of Lich) festival. The collective presented filigree workings in spraying and printing techniques on wood, paper, and large-scale installations.

Focus of the painting were a dozen exhibits of the Telephone Series and new works by the Urban Glamour series of portraits, the painting The author and the image Installation Unterm großen Baum.

In addition, the exhibition showed the installations Trabi S601 and Voice of the Streets from the years 2012 and 2014 as well as new installations from the colorful world of Milvus County.

Workdescription

The show consists of multiple editions and installations:


The Telephone Series of 3Steps tryed to invite people, to a clear and distinct communication. Just as in earlier times the red phone during Cold War a direct link between nations was, should the people communicate clearly with and under each other, while they are talking eye to eye. This relates to socio-critical topics, environmental degradation, war, suffering and injustice, but also one’s own desires, feelings and ideas as well as the beautiful things that make life worth living.


Furthermore, it is about the transformation of banal everyday objects into cult objects. Through intensive colors an old black telephone gainson new meaning.


As a template for the series serves an old phone by the grandfather from Kai and Uwe Krieger. Further Pierre Fréderic Datz, the great-great-grandfather of Joachim Pitt, got the first phone in the world for the physicist Philipp Reis in 1861. This is an important personal background for the collective and their own history.


The Telephone Series is sprayed with templates to custom-made paper collages by hand. These consist of magazines, newspapers and journals as well as various print media were collected by themselves over jears. The series is made on wood and sealed with hard lacquer. Each phone tells its own story or reflects a particular theme.


Unterm großen Baum shows fragments of the life of a young woman from childhood to present. Nature, animals and scenery surrounded her around the big tree and in the distance the domestic big city is located. The woman is a author and reads to relax and enjoy a fantastic novel. The work is made with spray paint on wood. Here, in addition to the freehand spraying, different spraying techniques and templates were used. Pattern of the design and the wildlife link the individual picture elements and parts of the story.


The Author is an advanced standalone element for the installation Unterm großen Baum. The picture shows a writer at the interruption of her work. Whether she is in thought, she turns to the watcher or pauses only for the moment. Likewise, if the lady is writing a letter, a report or a book. As with the other portraits of Urban Glamour series the edges of handmade wooden bodies are provided with individual branding and headlines of the collective.


Milvus County also includes installations of wood. The focus here is on the transformation of vintage wood and used work tools to Neo Pop exhibits.


For the double installation Taken from the farm and Wheels and Sticks the collective re-edited antique wagon wheels, an old wooden crate and fruit masher. The wood has been carefully prepared and painted with acrylic and spray paint in bright colors.


Especially for the exhibition, the backlit sign Milvus Motel was designed and crafted by the collective. The shield is made out of wood and a color-changing illumination behind acrylic glass.


Milvus County is the next step of the young creative phase of the collective since its realignment in 2012.