ID image provided by the gallery, 05/14/2008

Caterpillar Suit I

Date2007

Maker Walter Oltmann South African, born 1960

Label TextWhy weave a sculpture to honor a caterpillar? Walter Oltmann answers, “Spending an inordinate amount of time on making something that is usually considered insignificant, like an insect, does make us look differently at them. Observing misunderstood insects closely and interpreting them on a magnified scale throws up their particular adaptations and plays with our perspective that is usually fixated on their mechanical features and alien behavior and the threat they pose to us. We are impelled to identify with the familiar through the shock produced by the unfamiliar environment. In this way we are forced to identify with the other and to consider why we create the divide between ‘us’ and ‘them.’”

Object number2019.25.1

ProvenanceThe artist; [Goodman Gallery Café, Cape Town, South Africa]; purchased by Josef Vascovitz and Lisa Goodman, Seattle, Washington

Photo CreditID image provided by the gallery, 05/14/2008

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, A Quartet of Suits, Oct. 7, 2008 - Feb. 14, 2011. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, June 18 - Sept. 7, 2015 (Los Angeles, California, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Oct. 18, 2015 - Mar. 13, 2016; Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum, Apr. 29 - Sept. 18, 2016). Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Lessons from the Institute of Empathy, Mar. 31, 2018 - ongoing. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Unruly Suits, November 28, 2025 - January 31, 2027.Published ReferencesVargas, Cintia. “Interview with Walter Oltmann.” Apr. 17, 2014, https://www.cintiareyes.com/2014/04/17/interview-with-walter-oltman/.

Credit LineGift of Josef Vascovitz and Lisa Goodman in honor of Kimerly Rorschach

Dimensions46 7/16 x 23 1/4 x 16 9/16 in. (118 x 59 x 42 cm)

MediumAnodized aluminum and brass wire