The core theme of the work is the sensual relationship of red and sweet, its
functionality. Concerning the overall form of the text (as such) it can
be read as a "critical analysis", a collection of scientific or
philosophical sentences, respectively "quasi-scientific" or
"quasi-philosophical" sentences, by its employment of a definitory
language, a positivist mode of speaking, so to say. Thematically the
work revolves around the central thesis:
Red means sweet. The text's analytical intention
is contested, or undermined by a progressive intensification
of its poetic intention, an invasion of hyper-sensual
equivalents of the physiological allegations.
The omnipresence of areal red in urban and quasi-urban surroundings creates a permeating nausea.
The
writing as such is incorporeal as far as it only exists as scratches in a clear
film and their shadows on the wall. By rhythmically following the duct of a
hand-writing these engraved lines randomly fill the outline of each letter.
Single sheets of film are pinned to the wall at a distance of about 1 inch.
They are attached only on their top for to allow them swinging with the air
that is moved by a physically approaching reader. A single, frontal lamp in
the centre of the installation is used as lighting of the piece to cast only
a single shadow of the writing in order to ensure the text's legibility. With
such illumination the relative visibility of the actual writing (the scratches)
and its shadow changes with the position of a reader, the viewing angle, and
to some extent by the sheets being moved.
Vision is a desire machine.
[The text as iconoclast.] In this work the pictorial appearance
of the text is competing with its textual. The amount of text,
especially when considering an impaired legibility, demands a
particular temporal engagement substantially different from looking
at the piece as a pictorial surface (however intense a gaze at the picture may be).
In a way (or to some extent) reading demands an eye that neglects
the pictorial quality of the text for to render the writing a
"mere text" in order to understand the words and sentences
on a literal level.
Red increases salivation.
