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?

film stills

 
  
  
  
  

stills from super 8 footage filming 'home' - in beacon and in new york.

migrating between a (art) and r (research)



in my current art practice i find myself mentally migrating back to nuremberg quite frequently to anticipate the process and reactions of collaborators as well as other participants in flüstergewürz. the painter judith tucker’s discussion of the concept of home and sigmund freud’s explanation of the uncanny, the un-homely (unheimlich), resonate insofar as my own concernment with the concept of home has been dissolved somewhere along my migratory paths. i truly do not feel “at home” anywhere, but i also do not miss the sense of belonging to a geographically determined location. i am quite comfortable with the idea of establishing my own narrative, whether associated with germany, the u.s., or the migratory activity in between. i give credit for this sentiment to the contemporary situation to attain permission to travel freely whenever and wherever one desires. this is a fortunate circumstance, and i am always astonished to witness travelers ending up stranded for hours, sometimes days, in an airport, caused by a weather-related delay. the sense of entitlement of the contemporary traveler related to the certainty to migrate freely takes the relative ease and comfort of modern travel for granted.


i don't consider my artistic process as an attempt to establish a sense of home for myself, but i realize that connecting with familiar and unfamiliar people in nuremberg possesses some kind of therapeutical bearing for me. in this sense, the aesthetic and psychological impact of my project on its witnesses (including myself) could be considered as an internal migration between safety and uncertainty, between the heimisch (domestic) and the unheimlich. 


examining germany as the place of my origin and relating its idiosyncrasies to my voluntary migration is taking on a significant role in my art practice.

german version

i finally finished translating this blog into german: http://amfa2deutsch.blogspot.com/

more mementos

visuals -----






hauptmarkt model



chilibread masonry

it's funny how deceiving this video turned out - i wasn't attaching the cobblestones to the wall but the way i had set up the camera made it seem that way. i made a model of the town square, and cobblestones there are on the ground - this could be a gallery wall though....

sand/spice

1/4 tsp of ea: cinnamon, allspice, ginger, chili - extra 1/4 tsp of chili - 1 full tsp chili


covering the square with spices might turn out to be a rather costly enterprise. i'm considering mixing spices with sand and pigments. in my studio i've been combining spices and sand: the aroma is delightful, my studio has never smelled better.

mementos



these are the marks on the countertop after i removed the cut-out chilibread squares to put them on a baking sheet. unexpected ephemera.

more baking



i baked another batch of cobblestones, this time i managed to cut out smaller pieces. i intend to build a model of nuernberg's hauptmarkt to play out the scenario i envision covering a small area on the square with spices.

spice trade


in new york's murray hill district is a small cluster of stores selling mainly indian groceries. one of them has an immense array of spices. i bought cinnamon, chili, allspice, and ginger. paprika's intense and subtly nuanced reds certainly are tempting.

...verliefen sich im wald....

the book i remember from my childhood

for a while i have been considering the significance of fairy tales in german culture; in relation to my project the tale of haensel und gretel and their ordeal in a witch's gingerbread house seem rather relevant. the siblings' forced migration from their home through a dark forest, the unsuccessful creation of a map using bread crumbs, and their fateful encounter with a witch at her gingerbread house, resonate within the context of my art practice. the story questions our perception of home by attempting to recreate a sense of security, familiarity, and dwelling in a seemingly protective and accommodating place (gingerbread house), which turns out to be a hazardous façade. the narrative describes the words and the process of heimisch/heimlich (heimlich: hidden, secretly) to unheimlich.
on another note: it is the sister who, in the end, saves her brother by killing the witch.

un/heimlich

lily markiewicz's question of viewing art and its affect: are we impulsively trying to rationalize the initial, subconscious experience by becoming aware of the emotional and aesthetic impact of a piece of art? does it eliminate our out-of-control sense after the revealing moment of affect in case the work is disconcerting or unheimlich? are we trying to rationalize our response by analyzing our emotional reaction and the aesthetic aspect of the piece? this is obviously one of enlightenment's argument. are we trying to reconcile?
in a wider aspect, all these questions are ingrained in my project. i react to the perception of discombobulation and the feeling of being out of control and of un-homeliness when i remember beginning to experience america as my new place of residence. these moments of initial affect and the feeling of confusion still happen but now occur only sporadically. i don't consider my artistic process as an attempt to establish a sense of home for myself, but i realize that connecting with familiar and unfamiliar people in nuremberg possesses some kind of therapeutical bearing for me.
i admire my mother's courage and enthusiasm for my project; she is re-establishing relationships with people with whom she might have parted on uneasy terms some time ago.
list of collaborators so far:
nuremberg: my mother, monika lenzer, matthias dachwald, michael matthaeus martha, ute little
usa: kaycee olsen

postal exchange



exchange commodities: my mom has been sending material such as copies of photographs and other information about the hauptmarkt. some of it i requested, some of it came from books that she borrowed from friends. on monday i sent her a rather big package of pecans, cashews, allspice, candied and dried chili pepper, and a variety of baked cobblestones disguised as early christmas presents. it's a challenge, i wonder whether the package will get to nuremberg.....

chilibread compound



cobblestone cutter


cookie cutter for cobblestones/two sizes/wonder whether it's going to make it to germany in one piece.

recipe

this is the recipe i use to make chilibread. i first converted the measurements from my mom's german cookbook into cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons, and then converted them back to grams and german pounds to translate my american version and send it to my mom.

bring honey and butter to a boil, let cool down to room temperature. combine all ingredients in food processor or mixer, fill into bowl and cover; store in warm place (florida: kitchen is fine, new york/germany: cooler or oven). let dough rest for eight days. roll out using lots of cornmeal, and cut out squares. bake on wax paper for 15-20 minutes on 315f. store in sealed container.

chilibread
2.6 cups honey
1.5 cups ground pecans, cashews, and walnuts
8 TS butter
2 eggs
zest of one orange and one lemon
2.6 cups cornmeal
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 TS allspice
1 tsp vanilla
2 TS candied chili peppers*
1/2 tsp dried chili peppers

*cut stem off chili peppers, cut lengthwise, scrape out seeds, and cut into thin strips; combine sugar (1 part) and water (1 part), add peppers, and boil everything on low heat for an hour. take out peppers and spread on baking sheet and dry at F 395 degrees for about 10 minutes. syrup's delicious over pancakes; but use caution. courtesy of ice cream ireland