Drawing (553) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Burning oil wells during the first Gulf War. "There is no conqueror other than God," the inscription above the cloud says, in which are drawn the ruins of the Casa di Marco Lucvezio photographed by Giorgio Sommer in Pompeii in 1882. In front hovers the sketch of a Foster Mobile - a helicopter in the form of a Greek temple with swastikas as rotor blades. Religions as military institutions are nothing new in world history, but remain breathtakingly constitutive. Every possible heaven is lastingly obstructed by them:  all have to go through their hells, their representatives are hellhounds. The cat on the railing carries the bi-sexual Hydra as prey between its jaws. The soldier guarding the wells has no eye for this. He is a loner. Here, no wanderer comes to Sparta anymore, here, the universal sacrificial lamb is called for. Don't ask, don't tell in every respect. What remains is the view from the outside-from a space capsule, oblivion as such, to which a parallel universe is dedicated." (From: Schwarze Blöcke, SchwarzHandPresse 2010).

(1997)

Drawing (554) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Admit One as printed on an American cinema ticket for one person. It contains the dates of two birthdays: one real, in Achim, on January 22nd 1948, and one imaginary, in Amsterdam, on October 9th 1979. In the background is a diseased forest whose recovery has never been of great interest to me: an illusory context, silently there, which invites catcalls and stupefies minds. A pair of garden shears threatens to cut off a giraffe’s neck, as a rescue helicopter floats over its horns. If I were to cut off some part of me, it would be my feet, which I would then be standing next to. The feet of a Chinese man complete with sandals can be seen, which were cut off and sewn back on again. A bamboo stem in China, into which a friend scratched the Pym Films logo back in 1986, prevents a pair of mental scissors from snapping shut. A form of state capitalism where the roles of lord and servant can be chosen freely, with a replaceable Saint Just as the big boss figure, the utopia of All You Can Eat thus fulfilled. (From: arsenal, november 13).

(1996)

Zeichnung (555) aus DIE BASIS DES MAKE-UP

"Text under construction"

Drei Giraffen mit von einem Hubschrauberrotor verursachten Einkerbungen in den Hälsen. J (ugend). Produktionsstätte für Tonkrüge in Marokko. Magnolienblüten aus Basel in positiv und negativ. 

(1996) 

Drawing (556) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"A giraffe’s head that has mutated into a sofa bed towers above a portrait of a woman that has been split into four pieces. Lost in thought, she observes an electrically operated hand, which is serving a glass in front of a razor blade. A rod with two further plastic hands at each end is located above it, as well as a broom turned upside down and mounted on top of a stick, which juts out into the image. The woman thinks: These are all semantic perspectives whose meaning I can’t recognize, although it’s right in front of me. I could perhaps understand everything better if I split myself into four pieces. But to start with, I should just go to sleep and no longer feel any regret. She falls asleep and enjoys an attack of guiltlessness. Upon awakening, she puts herself back together and decides to get someone else to do her work. A self-driving car politely stops to let her cross the street. She expresses her thanks with a nod, which is broadcast to a central office. Aren’t people friendly today, thinks an official. The woman calls April April into the hidden camera." From: arsenal, april 17

(1993) 

Drawing (557) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"A motorized serving hand transports a glass before a milled stainless steel razor blade. A giraffe with its neck in bandages looks up from a letter written in 1975, a historically documented stutter: “This was run ... and that was ... seen so ... Together they form ... and no room for ... by.” I can’t claim I was interested in processes and dialogues back then, but rather in states and statements. This disinterest, which Frieda Grafe may have termed “perversion”, continued for a long time out of sheer necessity. My films remained focused on points from which the space was grasped by different lines of sight. The movement is supposed to take place in the mind but is not to be represented. All the talk of a “moving camera” doesn’t give things any time. Their own individual time must however be insisted upon if you want to remain committed to reality or what you regard as such, to say nothing of stories and processes that have no beginning and no end and thus cannot be narrated." (From: arsenal, may 16).

(1993) 

Zeichnung (558) aus DIE BASIS DES MAKE-UP

"Manhattan, 1974. Ein unlogischer Schattenwurf auf das Fenster eines leeren Apartments mit Ausblick auf die beiden Türme des World Trade Centers. Der Auszug und die Aussicht auf eine Rückkehr - irgendwann, immerhin, später - in einer als endlos empfundenen Zeit. Doppeltrapezförmige Holzsärge erzeugen in mir Übelkeit, ich schrecke vor ihnen zurück, scheue ihren Anblick. Hier dagegen ein Designer-Sarg aus Italien unter einem marmoriert gemusterten und in Falten gelegten Überwurf auf einem schwarzen Teppichfetzen - later, sometime, nevertheless - am Ende der Zeit. Gespräche mit Ken Jacobs in einem Frühstückslokal an der Chambers Street über die Zeitenwende im Iran, die prophezeite Ankunft Hazrat Mehdis, deren Begleitumstände Mohammed Atta siebenundzwanzig Jahre später in NYC heraufbeschwören zu müssen meinte. Wir liefen ohne Ziel zwischen den Börsianern umher, alles schien zum letzten Mal billig zu sein: Dies war einmal unsere Zeit. Der heraufdämmernde Hohn der Besserverdienenden, die juckende Haut und das Kratzen." (Aus: flypaper #5, 2010).

(1975) 

Drawing (559) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"Hamburg, 1976. Getting totally plastered, three stages of drunkenness: sipping, slurping, binge drinking like there's no tomorrow. Excessive levelling of one's own and another's body fluids. The inner horizon, the ninety-degree power relation between horizon and gravity, turned inward and directed outward. Leading a spiritual existence as short comic at the place The United States of Aggregation. To be transported: the site-specificity of thoughts and, as their result, the possibility of their uprooting appeared to me as the essence of a trip. The thoughts surfaced at the same speed they were spit and jetted out, like wandering clouds. I cannot pack, but about that, too, I cared increasingly less. Instead of packing I kept buying new suitcases in all different sizes. Hopelessly sobered I stored the suitcases in each other like Matryoshka dolls and departed. At every border, suffering from strong feelings of loss, I left a suitcase at customs." (From: The Travel Almanac Nr. 4, 2012).

(1976)

Drawing (560) from THE BASIS OF MAKE-UP

"As a fourteen-year-old, much to the dismay of my mother, I wanted to emigrate to Australia. This is a silhouette of this continent under a kitchen table with seven locks in Achim, Lower-Saxony. The letter combinations ZU, U and UZ as neon signs refer to "Closed", "Underground" and "Our Time" ("Unsre Zeit"), the newspaper of the German Communist Party. What remains alluring in the form of the fable? Which storyteller remains credibly anchored in the body? The silver ribs of the World Trade Center reflected the sun so crisply through my window that a jacket hung over a chair cast a shadow on the linoleum. The deployment of one's lifetime without instant gratification, no strategic communication with a society projected solely for this purpose; a non-hysterical relationship to a lack of time to write down the story hidden in the body. The multifaceted potentiation of viewing directions, the formative spacial coordinates of a landscape, the temporary linguistic tools of which we are. And, finally, the chair toppled by reflected rays of sunlight." (From: The Travel Almanac Nr. 4, 2012).

(1976)

Zeichnung (561) aus DIE BASIS DES MAKE-UP

"Hamburg, 1977. Der Innenraum eines Containers mit quadratischem Ausblick. Darin zwei Selbstportraits - eine multiple Persönlichkeit als Teilnehmer verschiedener Universen - nackt an einer Glasscheibe sitzend und gehend mit vorgestrecktem linkem Arm in einem Lodenmantel und mit Hut, beide Ansichten von hinten. THE GLASS - Das Glas, zum Zersplittern gespannt, eine unheimliche Materie, durch die wir schauen können, als lebten wir in einer Utopie. THE SAID - Das Gesagte, eine Stele aus der Vergangenheit, die den Schatten des Gehenden durchkreuzt. Es ist unsere Bekleidung, hängt von uns herab, macht uns lesbar wie die letzte Mode. Mein im Fensterrahmen gespiegeltes Profil bildet als Vexier-Bild ein Gefäß, in Vorbereitung auf den Film Normalsatz. THE CASE - Der Fall, in jeder Sekunde neu. Ein positiv angeschaltetes und ein negativ ausgeschaltetes Ohr aus weißem und aus schwarzem Marmor. In der Tat höre ich nur auf einem Ohr und kann wählen, zu hören oder nicht zu hören. Ein Quadrat im Quadrat, in dem sich alles, besonders aber die Mehrdeutigkeit, ereignet. " (Aus: Zeichnung oder Film, 2013).

(1977) 

Zeichnung (562) aus DIE BASIS DES MAKE-UP

"Text under construction"

29 Palms in der Joshua Tree Wüste bei Los Angeles, Sylvester 1992. Ein Yucca-Tree mit Telegrafenmast. Unterbrochene Kommunikation. Helmut Herbst zerschneidet mit der Schere eine Nacktschnecke, Birkert 1996. Ich selbst am Strand in Dänemark, 1968 von Rüdiger Neumann fotografiert. Im Positiv unter dem Abflußstampfer, im Negativ zerschnitten.

(1996) 

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