darts and spice

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

while my mother and her friends are baking chilibread in nuernberg, i have been considering and re-considering the planned performance on the hauptmarkt. after speaking with the manager in charge of events on the hauptmarkt, and her advice about the permanent windy conditions there after the demolition of one of the buildings at the square, i needed to think over the idea of a layer of spice covering the cobblestones. a small tent or kiosk, filled with the aroma of spices resulting from burning or boiling and laying out ginger, chili, cinnamon, etc., will be the stage of the installation. recorded stories about the hauptmarkt will be playing and there will be a recording station outside the tent for visitors to add to the story collection. i will give out spice samples and ask my audience to prepare a dish with these spices. i'll invite them to come back the next day and let me try the dish. 

in the meantime i have been concerned with the issue of dispersing the spice aroma. while at sideshow in brooklyn i'd like to release aroma in the gallery. explosion as a means to disperse the spices seems a feasible option. i developed a spice game by attaching spice-filled balloons to a wall and trying to hit the targets with darts. at the moment of impact the balloons explode and spread the spice and its aroma across a small space in the gallery.

no new york

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

witnessing america - recording america (new york) in photographs (nicolas: concept of 'no' in avant-garde) - i attempt with these photographs of my american environment to not draw attention to any specific motif/concept/object but to simply describe and thus witness the place where i live - this has been extremely difficult as it is the nature of photography to document, to draw attention to a specific object or event, and to archive. is it essential, significant, meaningful to take these pictures and print/copy/multiply/publish them?

remembering my grandmother's america - in super 8. i have been filming: new york, beacon, myself.

zarah's legacy

 

  

  

cindy sherman was motivated to compose her film stills by her memories of watching b/w films from the '50s and '60s. my super 8 clips simulate my grandmother's posing for her husband's, and later, my uncle's camera - in 1960s and '70s california. i am appropriating my grandmother's poses, her waving for the camera (to us?), her posing like a silent movie star (she adored zarah leander). when i was a child, over the years, my parents received a number of super 8 films from my grandmother in california. i have not seen these films for many years, but i am re-enacting what i remember in front of the camera: my grandmother being proud of her new life in america. i rely on my memory to recall the poses etc, but i am also adding my own movements, my own poses. i always wondered about the reason of my grandmother's extroverted and suggestive poses - whom was she posing for? for us? for the filmmaker?