the wondering

Posted on Tuesday May 31st, 2016 by Ines Seidel

Das Wundern kommt dir entgegen. text on concrete, Ines Seidel.

Das Wundern kommt dir entgegen. (Wondering is coming towards you.) text on concrete. wire, polymer clay. 15 cm diameter.

the text translates

the wondering
is already coming to
wards you. Have you come
to wonder? towards won-
dering. oh. uh. oh. going towards
all wonders at this
time of day. here, wondering comes t-
owards you. oh! uh! oh!
you! Are you moving towards
wondering? oh! you! here!
the wondering is al-
ways coming towards you here
right now. Are you coming
towards wondering?
oh! you! here is the spa-
ce where you both meet:
you + wondering.

words are not light enough.

Posted on Saturday November 28th, 2015 by Ines Seidel

words are not light enough. Ikea lightbox, writing..

THIS PIECE IS TO MAKE YOU SEE THAT WORDS
ARE NOT LIGHT ENOUGH. SPACE IS TRANSPARE
NT. WORDS ARE NOT. IGNORE MY WRITING, SEE
THE SPACE BETWEEN. SEE? (AND MAYBE ADMIT
BLOCKING LIGHT HAS BEAUTY, TOO.) WOR
DS ARE BLOCKING THE LIGHT. WORDS DO
NOT SHINE ON THEIR OWN. WORDS ARE NOT
NEVER CLEAR ENOUGH. WORDS ARE NOT →
BRIGHT ENOUGH. IGNORE THESE LINES AND
LET THE SPACE SPEAK TO YOU DIRECTLY.

THERE IS NO OTHER CONTENT. ENJOY THE
FREE SPACE. WORDS ARE NOT SPACIOUS
ENOUGH. SEE? WORDS GET IN THE WAY. YOU
HAD TO SEE THIS…. YOU HAVE
TO SEE THIS FOR YOURSELF. (WORDS ARE O.K.)
WORDS ARE NOT LIGHT ENOUGH.

words are not light enough. Ikea lightbox, writing.

WORDS ARE NOT TRANSPARENT ENOUGH.
THEY BLOCK THE LIGHT (TO AN EXTENT). THESE WOR
DS ARE NOT BRIGHT ENOUGH TO SHINE ON THEIR OWN.
BUT THEY HAVE THE POWER TO SHAPE THE SPACE (TO AN
EXTENT). YET, THE SPACE REMAINS FREE FROM CONTENT.
IGNORE THE WORDS AND READ THE ← → do you see?
SPACE INSTEAD. WORDS ARE NOT SPACIOUS ENOUGH.
CAN YOU SEE THE FREEDOM IN THE SPACE AROUND THE
LETTERS? AND THE LIGHT? THIS IS THE COMPLETE CONTENT.
WORDS ARE NOT CLEAR. words are not transparent enough.
LETTERS ARE TOO LIMITED AND TOO DENSE TO TRAN
SMIT LIGHT.
read beyond
or don’t
read at all.
All there is
to realize is
in the space
between the
words. AT THE
EDGE OF THE
WORDS, WHERE
THE PAINT ENDS.
THIS IS WHERE
THE LIGHT
STARTS.
READ AND
SHINE IF YOU
WANT.

words are not light enough. Ikea lightbox, writing.

words are not light enough. too heavy.
BUT SOMETIMES THEY CAST BEAUTI
FUL SHADOWS. WORDS ARE NOT TRA
NSPARENT ENOUGH. IT IS THE SPA
CE BETWEEN THE LETTERS THAT
TRANSMITS THE LIGHT. DO YOU SEE
THIS IS THE COMPLETE CONTENT:
FOLLOW THE WORDS ONLY AS FAR AS
THE BLACK PAINT GOES. THEN ENTER
THE SPACE BETWEEN THE WORDS.
THE FREE, TRANSPARENT SPACE
THAT DOES NOT BLOCK THE LIGHT. THIS
IS WHERE WE MEET. AT THE EDGE OF THE BLACK PAINT. WHERE THE LIGHT PASSES.

words are not light enough. Ikea lightbox, writing.

texture

Posted on Sunday May 24th, 2015 by Ines Seidel

texture. crocheted text, wool. c. 140 x40 cm.

dialogue. crocheted story and story about evolution. Ines Seidel..

outside, inside. self portrait with crocheted text.

throne. digital photography with chair and crocheted story.

soap bubbles

Posted on Friday December 5th, 2014 by Ines Seidel

no title. photography with foam on story.

white foam.

story, written on ice

Posted on Thursday October 23rd, 2014 by Ines Seidel

My story and yours
still separate, frozen
are starting to melt:
Letters flow away,
sentences gather in puddles…

Our story, one slow current,
trickles into new patterns,
seeps into the ground or evaporates
save for a bit of dust,
and falls down as rain, somewhere.

For the series of photographs “story, written on ice” I wrote on a bloc of ice with Indian ink. I chose two different fragments of German text, one from a family saga by John von Düffel, whose writing usually has to do with water. The other line is from a poem which is better known as the song “The miller’s joy is wandering”. Here are the translations:

Impossible to say, how often I thought of these rivers, how often I dreamt of them, how many nights I was drawn to them, when I was passing through sleeping towns, dry, riverless towns, on the search for water, on the search for the movement of water,(…). My translation from: John von Düffel “Vom Wasser” (On water).

The water teaches us to move, the water. From: Wilhelm Müller “Wandering”

hold us

Posted on Wednesday September 24th, 2014 by Ines Seidel

May the story hold me, may it be LARGE and bear all of me, may it last long enough to define my FEATURES.
May the story hold YOU, may it be LARGE and bear you, may it last long ENOUGH TO DEFINE your features.
MAY THE STORY hold you and me, may it be large AND BEAR US. May it last long enough to carve out our FEATURES. May it give US NAMES. MAY it be loose enough so we CAN SEE THROUGH IT. MAY IT BE DENSE ENOUGH TO HOLD US FOR A WHILE TOGETHER. MAY THE STORY HOLD YOU AND ME. May it hold us. May it hold you and me. May the story hold all of us.

May the story hold me, may it be large and bear ALL of me. May it last LONG ENOUGH TO DEFINE my features.
May the story hold you. May it be LARGE and bear all of you. May it last long enough to define your FEATURES.
May THE STORY HOLD YOU AND ME. May the story be large + bear all of US. May it last long ENOUGH to define our FEATURES. May it give us NAMES. May it be loose ENOUGH so we CAN SEE through it. May it be dense enough to hold US for a while together. May it HOLD US. May it hold YOU + ME. May it give US NAMES. MAY it carve out our features. MAY THE STORY HOLD ALL OF ME AND ALL OF YOU. May THE STORY HOLD ALL OF US. MAY IT HOLD US TOGETHER. May it last long enough to CARVE OUT OUR FEATURES.
may it be a good story.

text inside and outside of the bowl.

bowl from wire and teabags, text written with ink; covered with wax.
head shapes from concrete made with sand, paper and cement; paint.
The sculpture is 18 cm in diameter and 9 cm high.

walls from words

Posted on Thursday September 18th, 2014 by Ines Seidel

wire houses, with or without a concrete base. Wrapped in spontaneous text written on tea bags, sealed with wax.

(house 1, in the picture above the second house from right, translated from German).

walls from words and windows from soft words and doors from stories and walls from words and windows from soft words and roofs from half sentences and stairs from laughter only the light is simply here. And you are here. I am here.

In between walls from words, windows from soft words, doors from stories and unspoken cellar rooms and you are here with me. We talk walls to each other.

In between light falls through walls from words and roofs from half sentences and stairs from laughter, windows from soft, thin words, doors from stories. You hear here. Here.

And roofs from half sentences and walls from words and everything can fall apart if we don’t catch a new word, but light is simply here. And you are here and I am here and doors from stories, if you believe them. Stairs from laughter, cellar rooms from unspoken words. If you believe them. If you believe words, you are here with me.

(house 4, the smallest one, with English words)

Living inside stories, written on the walls oft he world that has your name on it. Telling you where your limits are. Spelling your name.

Living inside stories. Telling you: You are here. The limits of your name echo from the walls. The story about limits.

Living inside stories written on the walls of your name. If you believe in limits. If you believe in stories, how much room does your name need. If you believe.

Living inside stories, as if they were your skin.

no language

Posted on Monday May 26th, 2014 by Ines Seidel

“This is it: I have no language for reality. … how could one prove who one is in reality? I can’t. Do I even know myself who I am? This is the frightening experience of this period of remand: I have no language for my reality.” A passage from Max Frisch’s novel “I am not Stiller” (in my own translation). I have replaced the preceding pages with a concrete block.

Language is like cement, a story can be like concrete. Maybe that is so, because such a shape of story touches us deeply. It transmits an experience across the limits of the pronounceable.

Out of the constitution

Posted on Thursday November 28th, 2013 by Ines Seidel

I have changed the constitution of the GDR. I cut out all the dead and abstract words. Only few words still had life inside, sometimes just one or two words per page would still speak. I gave them hold with a red thread.

Now the text is in an almost transparent constitution, even the bondage of the thoughts within is exposed. The roots of the new text continue to be visible on the backside of the remaining words.

Here is the poem of the amended constitution. Every line represents a page.
(rough translation).

/CHAPTER 1, Political Foundation/

in town and country clasped in the lower part
the freedom of another people
The natural resources, the mines, power stations, dams and large waters, the natural wealth of the continental shelf are fundamental
air of home
values as a matter of physical culture

/SECTION II, Citizens and Communities in the Society/

every [she] every [he]
man and woman
freed
secret
present invulnerability
the church of their mother tongue

/CHAPTER 3, The Unions and their Rights/

They take part in the revolution

/CHAPTERL 4, The Production Cooperatives and their Rights/

voluntary

/CHAPTER 1, The People’s Chamber/

actualizes evolution
for the duration of worry
fact of presence
on the 60th day on the 45th day on the 15th day

/CHAPTER 2, The State Council/

after the reelection
writes questions

/CHAPTER 3,The Council of Ministers/

It issues names
for collective cognition

/SECTION IV, Legality and Administration of Justice/

Life directly
independent – bound
being listened to
the decision to turn
The constitution changed
in power.

Before I altered the complete constitution I had ripped out some pages and changed them separately. You can see them here and here. The words that I had cut out became the base of my suggestions for an organically shaped constitution, like the one below.

New word hangings

Posted on Friday July 19th, 2013 by Ines Seidel

At a hobby shop I discovered 25×25 cm pieces of wire mesh. They seemed perfect for stabilizing words on the loose! My first experiment was with text loops circling around the wire. It created an atmospheric 3D structure.
For my second experiment I wanted to sew the text to the wire. I cut Scandinavian troll tales into stripes, marked some with Indian ink and waxed them partially before stitching. The structure got more dense and ready to absorb some characters.

More pictures (click to enlarge)

detail with faces

from the back

work in progress

detail

two word hangings

My first word hangings are heroic legends, crocheted with wool. Have a look!