Sarah Illenberger’s Uplifting Objects

Sarah Illenberger is a Munich-born, Berlin-based visual communicator. Her work consistently surprises me and makes me smile. She can take two everyday objects (cabbage + dress; apple + hair) and merge them into compound creations that are utterly aberrant, yet completely perfect at the same time.

If you need a purse to go with that cabbage dress, try Fulvio Bonavia’s broccoli bag.

Illenberger’s work evolves through different states. She considers her work its “most existent” while she’s building it, but finds it “most satisfying” when it’s been photographed.

“I like to work three-dimensional with my hands. It’s a natural instinct to work with my hands; I feel there’s more freedom in working physically as opposed to working with the computer. I always feel constrained or limited when I only have the toolboxes on the right and the cursor on the left and this little field where I can express myself. I somehow need 360 degrees around me and all colors and materials around to create something.”

Sarah Illenberger would have killed it on Craft Wars…

The artist wants her work to make people laugh and “uplift them”. I feel uplifted, but I can’t say the same for poor Kyle Nelson who has “chaetophobia” (or fear of hair)… Sarah Illenberger’s monograph is available here. Click through for a soft brain, a tiny green car and some video interviews.