Iris ter Schiphorst
Studien zu Figuren/Serie A (Studies on Figures/Series A) (2011)
to the WP 2011, Donaueschingen
My "Studies of Figures" are a bird's-eye view of a collective acting absurdly. I was inspired by Franz Kafka's "Researches of a Dog," works by Irish painter Francis Bacon, especially his approach to the creative process, and the story of a woman completely unknown to me whom I once met by chance while walking along the Landwehr Canal in Berlin.
Just as in Kafka's story the "music of the dogs" reveals their nature in expression to the narrator, I am interested in music as a form of human expression. I am convinced that tones/sounds are always associated with certain attitudes and states of consciousness. And as in Kafka's story, the role of the "other", the counterpart, the listener, is essential.
In receiving, in listening, we are constantly searching, albeit mostly unconsciously, for this expression – and occasionally we find it. Listening, eavesdropping, is an essential and deeply human process, because searching listening, searching eavesdropping for resonance, for a response, whether within myself or from outside, is always also an expression of a search for small contexts of meaning in a dark, absurd world.
The story of the canal is also about the search for connections in the expression of a woman who is completely unknown to me. In an almost Kafkaesque manner, the narrator endeavours to solve her own problem or at least become aware of it through free associations on a topic randomly set from outside, as well as to uncover possible contexts of meaning. However, she does this not through reflective analysis, but rather by circling around what is apparently a larger complex of her own problems.
Starting with a dog limping through the park, the narrator moves on to her own sick cats, a looming eviction notice and finally her own probable unemployment, which finds expression in the statement "even unemployed people can afford a pet", which seems completely unrelated to the outside observer and may implicitly allude to the whole complex of possible guilt over the death of one of her own cats.
For Bacon, the creative act is an attempt to find the image that one already carries within oneself using a wide variety of techniques, such as random operations. If one misses the inner image, the work is a failure, but sometimes one finds the right moment to complete it. The goal of penetrating the essence of a personality, as Kafka's dog also formulates at the end of the story, is also found in Bacon. His main problem with portrait painting is "finding a technique with which one can reproduce all the vibrations of a person... Those who sit for a portrait are flesh and blood, and what must be captured is what they radiate."
An initially nebulous inner idea only gradually takes shape in the course of production and through the choice of material. Nevertheless, it is not the original vision of a work of art that is decisive, but its gradual transformation in and through the working process, its expression. The idea is something different from the actual realisation. But without an inner idea, a work is dead.
The story of the woman I don't know "even unemployed people can afford a pet" (transcription ItS.):
„Hello, is that your dog? No? Strange, who does it belong to, the one that's limping. Hello, is that yours? See? It belongs to the old man over there on the bench, well, you can't interfere. He'll know what's wrong with his dog. He'll know him. Could be arthritis. Shepherds often get that when they're old. He'll know. You can't get involved. Even if you're unemployed, you can afford a vet if you have to. It's possible for an animal. Even unemployed people can afford a pet.
I have five cats. Well, actually only four now. I have to move out of my flat, they want me out. Eviction proceedings.
But I'm fighting it. I'm not going to put up with it. -
They say it's because it stinks. But that's not true. It doesn't stink at all. Only one room. - Because of the carpet. It stinks because of the carpet. I've had it since last year. I was able to pick it up. A cupboard too. I was able to pick that up as well. It only stinks in that room. Because of the carpet. But only a little. My neighbour already gave me some cleaning product for that. Organic. And I took the cupboard out again. -
I'm going to do something about it, I won't put up with it.
My favourite cat died too. A grey tabby. - Maybe because of the cleaning product. I don't know. I don't think so. It had a sore throat. A temperature of 39 degrees. I took it to the vet especially. Even someone who's unemployed can afford to take an animal to the vet. I think she messed it up. She was heavily pregnant and was going on about "oh dear, oh dear, the animal has a high temperature", but it was 39 degrees, which isn't high for a cat at all. Not high at all. After that, she had a low temperature, which was much worse. A low temperature is much worse.
The vet didn't have good nerves, probably because she was pregnant, and immediately gave the cat a fever reducer. That's nonsense. 39 degrees isn't high for a cat. And when she had a low temperature, I was supposed to put her under a sun lamp. She even gave me her sun lamp, which is complete nonsense. That's not possible at home. It works at the vet's because they're chained up and can't get away. That's nonsense for at home. I put her in my bed with the sun lamp, but she immediately got out from under the bed. I'm not going to chain my cat up at home. That's nonsense. And the fever reducer for 39 degrees. That's not high for a cat. Not high at all. After that, she had a low temperature of 35 degrees, and at 34, an animal dies. Of
course, it's possible that she swallowed some of the cleaning product. But the neighbour said it was organic. The urea was very high in the end. Of course, that could indicate poisoning. Kidney failure or something. I cleaned the whole room with it, really cleaned it, because I had another cat in my care. When she was there for the first time, she just sat on the cupboard, on top of my cupboard for four weeks. 50 by 45 cm. She never came down, in the end I had to put her litter tray on the cupboard. After that, I got rid of the cupboard. The second time, she just stayed under the bed the whole time, just under the bed. And when her owner came back, I thought she should have a good impression, so I cleaned the whole room, using one bucket and half a litre of cleaning product, and in the end, I even used a bucket and three litres under the bed. It was organic. Maybe she licked the carpet. She was under the bed because she didn't want the sun lamp. Maybe. It could really have been poisoning. But I think it was the fever reducer. That was the doctor, I don't want to get worked up about it, because then I'll want to sue her. Just because she was pregnant. A fever of 39 degrees is not normal for a cat. She doesn't need fever reducers for that. The sore throat was gone. But then she got hypothermia. I don't think it was the cleaning product."