After moving house, I started hanging the art as it came out of the boxes, strolling through the apartment to find a nice spot. A lot of the small pieces are in the office, where I can see them, others are in the living room or in a dark spot in the hallway.

I made sure none of them is exposed to direct sunlight and the delicate items have been placed in the darkest rooms with either no windows or windows facing north.

Find more pictures at flickr.

Rudolf Reiber had told me about this work even before it existed, way back in late 2008 or early 2009.

We were in his studio, talking about some of his works that include the process of “erasure”, such as “Dark Matter” (all the stars removed from a Thomas Ruff work), “ohne Titel” (the face of a 1 Euro coin sanded down to a smooth surface) and some of his video works.

Then he mentioned his latest project, involving another form of erasure: camouflage. He had researched the exact colours used by the British Air Force in WW2 to camouflage their bombers in different kinds of weather. “Sky”, “Sky Blue” and “Sky Grey” … the series is called “German Skies”. He wanted to have huge metal sheets painted in the reproduced, matte colours. And, if I remember correctly, he was already talking about exhibiting them in Ulm, in the atriums of the new Weishaupt Museum, high up in the air so you could actually compare the camouflage effect of the painted metal against the sky.

He did that exhibition and luckily, he also did an edition of smaller versions (17“), each colour is available three times, sold separately.

There are many reasons why I love this work. For one, because it is such a reduced, featureless and simple shape, yet it builds on something horrific and violent. I grew up in Ulm, which was heavily bombed, and the Museum Weishaupt now fills a gap left by the bombing. Reibers work was appropriately placed. My family (from my mother’s side) were refugees from what is now Poland, having first hand experience of the camouflaged planes. Plus the sky above Ulm very often has the colour of “Sky Grey”, a foggy, greenish, featureless haze.

As if that wasn’t enough, the small versions, hand painted and sanded down by the artist, come with an inbuilt surprise. The surface which is matte and almost completely featureless and not reflecting any light becomes a highly reflective surface when viewed from the appropriate angle.

“German Skies: Sky Grey”, painted metal, 33 x 28 x 1 cm

It’s a mirror in which you will never be able to see yourself. This may not be intended by Rudolf, but for me it exemplifies one purpose art has in my life. It’s a means to see the world from a different perspective, rather than a reflection of myself. At the same time, it’s so closely related to my life that it does that, too.

My wife bought this for me for Christmas. My wishlist included “Sky Grey” by Rudolf Reiber or a telescope. I can understand why Rudolf’s work was picked. It’s smaller, easier to store and it’s considerably less expensive than a good telescope.

Early in 2009 I discovered the work of iri5 (aka Erika Iris Simmons -> link). I love the concept of her “Ghost in the Machine” series, where she takes cassette tapes (remember those, anyone?) by a certain artist to create a portrait of ouf that tape.

Here is an example of John Lennon, selected because of its landscape format, not because it’s my favourite, to be honest:

Have a look at her flickr set to see more examples (-> link). Ian Curtis from Joy Division is an awesome piece!

I contacted iri5 to ask her if she would be up for a collaboration.

We agreed that:

1. Since she doesn’t know me and has never seen a photo of me, she wouldn’t research me online.

2. I would write a few pieces and record them on cassette and then send her that tape (it turned out to be 17 minutes).

3. She would listen to that tape and, if she decided to go ahead with the project, to create a piece based only on my voice and the content of the pieces I had recorded.

Here is the result:

It arrived in a large box, filled with vintage book pages that corresponded to the pieces I had written, some where folded into small petals. And there was an amulet with a small scroll of paper with a writing of her own + a very beautiful, handwritten letter.

The portrait is created from the “data rich” tape, as iri5 put it, the unrecorded tape being left in the case (actually, it’s on the right).

Yes, the portrait doesn’t look very much like me, but that’s not the point. The point is that she only had my voice and language to go by. So it’s a portrait based on emotion & imagination, rather than on physiognomy. I believe that the memory of how people look gets transformed over time by what one feels for them or thinks of them.

I simply love this piece.

Very early in my collection days (so that’s like what, about a year ago?) I got the work “48.085″ by Rudolf Reiber, consisting of 49 drawings, showing the stellar constellations above the artist’s roof window, as recorded in black ink on white paper in 49 nights.

A highly inaccurate method, reminiscent of the good old days when guys like Keppler were having a go at that sort of thing. Also reminiscent of the desire of man to “count the stars in the sky”. Also very appropriate to accompany my collection of Science Fiction literature …

It was now on loan for a show at the Hospitalhof in Stuttgart in Germany - and I missed it. Maybe the effect wears off after your third loan or so, but I’m really sad I couldn’t make it. Anyway, here is a picture, provided by Rudolf just a few minutes ago, and I had to share it:

And I love the way the 49 drawings (hung in 7 x 7) are streched across that corner! This just might be a way how I can fit them in my appartment in Ulm after I have moved! I will measure those walls on the weekend …

I love it when I see a work of art that grabs my attention, as it happened with the following works by Oliver Scharfbier (seen at the Zone B booth at Contemporary Istanbul, as mentioned before):

Visually attractive, maybe a trifle decorative at first sight. So what. I then bought a surprise art bag from them, which includes one of his works. And out comes nothing like I have seen before, but a work that deals with words and language and that is self-referential in a way I can appreciate.

This piece is #2 of a multiple of 15 pieces by Oliver, especially made for this “kunst-tüte” edition. Each has been made individually and each is slightly different (I guess, not having seen the others).

The text says: “Auch immer das gleiche ist nie das selbe.” (Even more of the same is never exactly the same.)

Maybe not very deep or world changing, but I can put that sentence into a very nice relation to other works of art I own and even things I do myself, so I’m expecting this piece to last for quite a while. (Actually, I should maybe create an exhibition at Independent Collectors titled “True Zen Sayings” … )

OK. Off to a dinner now … ;)