Published as part of the exhibition SUSU (Sufferin’ Succotash) at PuntWG in Amsterdam which “[departed] from shared characteristics between a Palaeolithic ochre fragment excavated from the Blombos Cave in South Africa (+/- 77.000 BC) and correction marks in the handwritten manuscript of Rainer Maria Rilke’s ‘Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge’ (1910). Beyond their visual similarities, Rilke’s writings evoke a reconsideration of the western reception of the ochre fragment. The resulting installation consists of a frieze incorporating two letters, a publication produced by Good Neighbour and a series of silkscreened textiles.”
This publication consists of two letters, one on the ochre fragment and one on the manuscript, arranged on the pages in clusters of words and sentences on otherwise empty pages; the letters, translated from Dutch into English by Laura Schuster, challenge ‘symbolocentric’ tendencies in archaeology and reflect on self-censorship and the material characteristics of written language.
Saddle stitched, 28 x 20 cm, 12 not numbered pages, ed/500, Amsterdam 2021
ISBN: 978-9-0831-5177-9
