LETTERFALLS

Series, started 1990

AUTOMAT, 1992. Letterfall. Paint on transparent paper, combined with silk-screen print, 145,5  x 105 cm

"
... the message, if it is one, becomes the medium. EINS (ONE) is the title of one of these messages which is neither title nor message since the title is already a component part of the LETTERFALLS text, that sequence of letters which from top to bottom, perhaps as an acrostic, almost retains its meaning or arrives at it (although it bids the readers eye to move downwards: ANGEL and SPORT become one).

As an acknowledgement of a kind of systematic, it nevertheless does not grow into a system, not even into that of a crossword puzzle although it flirts with its outward form. That is to say, there is no rule apart from that of probability; for instance, to latch onto some meaning by reading across and thereby to use up all the available possibilities presented by the letters and give them a new interpretation. Now and again an intact word is found, but without a stable search plan; there are no clear directions for use.
"

published by Ferdinand Schmatz: "Letterfalls" by Dominik Steiger, June 1992, www.mip.at

 

GEIST (spirit, mind...) Letterfall-jacket, 1990, yellow paint on blue cotton fabric