See What It’s Like To Party With The Coolest Textile Artist In Berlin
An interview with Fern Liberty Kallenbach Campbell
Fern Liberty Kallenbach Campbell is a textile artist based in Halle, Germany. Through the medium of fiber art, Kallenbach Campbell manifests her psyche and satirical viewpoint while simultaneously exploring the correlation between these two realms. With her work, she processes her life experiences and depicts personal anecdotes. Here, the boundaries between good and evil become blurred, as well as the boundaries between self-medication and addiction, chaos and harmony. Kallenbach Campbell explores her personal and digital realities and engages with them through carpet tufting, punching, and textile applique.
Who is Fern Liberty Kallenbach Campbell?
Hi, my name is Fern. I'm a textile artist. I'm German-American and currently based in Berlin. I work with weaving and tufting, and I love to celebrate. I enjoy organizing big parties and cooking elaborate dinners. I document these festivities and then turn them into carpets–pieces that capture the memories and energy of the events.
When did you make your first piece using textiles? What was it like?
I’ve always collected costumes and loved textiles. As a kid, I enjoyed going shopping–not to buy anything, but just to touch all the different fabrics and textures.
When I was around three or four, I had a big piece of shimmering turquoise fabric. I would wrap myself in it over and over until I looked like a giant turquoise sausage. Then I’d detangle myself and do it all again. Eventually, I started wrapping other things and accidentally began sewing and making little outfits.
By the time I was 14, I was sewing my own clothes. I’d collect fabrics from secondhand stores and flea markets–often working with vintage 1970s polyester curtains. I had so many failures. At some point, I decided I wasn’t interested in making practical things. I wanted to create objects and forms instead.
In 2019, my best friend convinced me to check out a textile art class in Halle, Germany. I was so shy, and when I walked into the class, I felt a bit silly. I had no idea there were entire courses dedicated to this thing I had discovered on my own by messing around with fabric.
Ever since then, it's been such a joy and a relief to make textile art the center of my life. I’m now a full-blown textile artist, and it’s really fun to see the world take an interest in something that used to be just for me.
Where is your favorite place to work?
I love working in a big studio with white walls and lots of windows for natural light. I prefer to work during the day because my eyesight isn’t great, and I work with a lot of detail. Too many shadows or not enough light makes it hard to focus.
I also really enjoy shared studio spaces. Sure, it’s fun to drink coffee and chat all day, but it’s even better when everyone is focused–you can feel the collective energy. There’s a kind of symbiosis that develops where people take breaks at the same time, and it starts to feel like a real job. You’re your own boss, but still part of a creative rhythm.
For me, having a community is incredibly important. Working alone in a studio can get very lonely, especially once you're no longer in school. I like to be around like-minded people.
What is the best part about textile art-making?
I love to use my hands and I love to walk around and wander while I work. I weave, which means I have to sit a lot, but I've discovered a weaving technique where the process starts out with me counting strings and then painting them, and then I have to dry them and pick them apart, and put them in the machine and there's so many steps to that which i enjoy.
There's lots of improvisation, so it kind of feels like I'm solving a puzzle. It's very fun to always be confronted with little problems that are fixable as long as I think logically and build little tools for myself.
It just doesn't get boring. And for me, drawing, which was my focus for a long time, just became too personal. I would sit there with my little pen, and it would be me, the pen, and the paper, and there was too much pressure on me. And now there are so many different textures and surfaces, which is more freeing. I love to be entertained, and I love to have fun, and I don't like to be too serious.
What is the worst part about textile art-making?
It's a horrible mess. Haha! Also, it’s hard on my body. For the first time in my life, I have carpal tunnel. The work is just very dusty and messy and hard on my body.
What has been your most unexpected artistic inspiration so far?
Like I said in the beginning, I love to celebrate and throw big parties. Before I started making tapestries, I used to document little still lives of messes that were left after the parties. I’d find little forbidden knick-knacks piled on top of each other, or evidence someone was secretly smoking in a corner when they shouldn't have been, or remnants of someone eating an orange. These things find these little stacks and residues. Even if you don't know who they come from, you tell what was going on a little bit. Like if the conversation was stressful, the beer label might be totally peeled off, or someone might’ve been chewing their nails.
I used to just document those piles with different types of cameras, and I just realized at some point, I had so many of them that I could use them for something else, too.
What is something about you that not many people know?
That’s tricky. I overshare all the time. But maybe some people don’t know that I’m a great dancer. And a great cook. Oh, and I’m totally addicted to shoes. There you go. Now you know.
