Mem Sevenster artist`s catalogue FIVEL ETTER WORDS OTHER

FIVEL ETTER WORDS OTHER TUNES
Mem Sevenster
Limited Edition (2012)
Number 1 of 20.
Cover and previous page: Mem Sevenster, The Redemption Wall (2012) (detail).
Above: Mem Sevenster, Five Letter Word Dictionaries (2012). Manipulated dictionary, pen on paper (detail).
FIVEL ETTER WORDS OTHER TUNES
Mem Sevenster
Fig.1. Five Letter Word Dictionaries (2012).
Manipulated dictionary, pen on paper (detail).
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CONTENTS
Abbreviations 1
List of Illustrations 2
Introduction
5
Background and personal experience
5
Researched artists and my work
5
Work methodology
9
Visual symbolism11
Conclusion15
Endnotes17
Appendix19
Bibliography24
Poem by Yayoi Kusama Lost (1998)27
Curriculum Vitae 29
ABBREVIATIONS
• ECT – Electro Convulsive Treatment
• OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• WNWCD - Webster’s New World
College Dictionary
Fig. 2. & 3. (page 3) The Redemption Wall (2012).
Mixed media (detail).
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Fig. 1. Mem Sevenster, Five Letter Word Dictionaries (2012).
Manipulated dictionary, pen on paper, 21 x 30 cm (detail)
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Fig. 2. Mem Sevenster, The Redemption Wall (2012).
Mixed media, 3.124 x 8.140 m (detail).
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Fig. 3. Mem Sevenster, The Redemption Wall (2012).
Mixed media, 3.124 x 8.140 m (detail).
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Fig. 4. Yayoi Kusama, Airline Stickers (1962). Collage on paper,
181.6 x 171.5 cm. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
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Fig. 5. Robert Mac Pherson, A Wheelbarrow for Richard (1997 - 2000).
Acrylic on Masonite, 156 panels,122 x 91.5 cm each. Sydney Biennale 2010
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Fig. 6. Wang Qing Song, Competition (2004). C- type print, 170 x 300 cm.
Sydney Biennale 2010
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Fig. 7. Mem Sevenster, Five Letter Word Dictionaries (2012).
Manipulated dictionary, pen on paper, 21 x 30 cm (detail)
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Fig. 8. Mem Sevenster, Five Letter Word Dictionaries (2012).
Manipulated dictionary, pen on paper, 50 x 80 cm (detail)
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Fig. 9. Mem Sevenster, The Redemption Wall (2012).
Mixed media, 3.124 x 8.140 m (detail). 7
Fig. 10. Mem Sevenster, Five Letter Word Dictionaries (2012).
Manipulated dictionary, pen on paper, 21 x 30 cm (detail).
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Fig. 11. Mem Sevenster, Five Letter Word Dictionaries (2012).
Manipulated dictionary, pen on paper, 21 x 30 cm (detail).
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Fig. 12. Mem Sevenster, Ink Stamps, variable.
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Fig. 13. Mem Sevenster, The Redemption Wall (2012).
Mixed media, 3.124 x 8.140 m (detail). 12 - 13
Fig. 14. Mem Sevenster, The Redemption Wall (2012).
Mixed media, 3.124 x 8.140 m (detail).
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Fig. 15 - 17. Mem Sevenster, The Redemption Wall (2012).
Mixed media, 3.124 x 8.140 m (detail).
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Fig. 18 - 20. Mem Sevenster, The Redemption Wall (2012).
Mixed media, 3.124 x 8.140 m (detail).
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Fig. 21. Mem Sevenster, The Redemption Wall (2012).
Mixed media, 3.124 x 8.140 m (detail).
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Fig. 22. Mem Sevenster, The Redemption Wall (2012).
Mixed media, 3.124 x 8.140 m (detail).
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Fig. 23. Mem Sevenster, The Redemption Wall (2012).
Mixed media, 3.124 x 8.140 m (detail).
Fig. 24 - 28. Mem Sevenster, Fivel Etter Words Other Tunes Exhibition.
The Redemption Wall.
Five Letter Word Dictionaries.
Five Letter Word Wall Sounds (audio).
White Tiles Music Happy Smile Hotel (audio).
The Red Horse (video).
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28 - 31
Well, you might say that I came under the spell of repetition and aggregation…
I was always standing at the centre of obsession, over the passionate accretion
and repetition inside me
(Yayoi Kusama cited in Hoptman, Tatehata & Kulterman 2000:10).
PAGE 7
Fig. 4. Airline Stickers (1962). Collage on paper.
Fig. 5. A Wheelbarrow for Richard (1999 - 2000). Acrylic on Masonite, 156 panels.
Fig. 6. Competition (2004). C- type print.
Fig. 7. Five Letter Word Dictionaries (2012). Manipulated dictionary, pen on paper (detail).
Fig. 8. Five Letter Word Dictionaries (2012). Manipulated dictionary, pen on paper (detail).
Fig. 9. The Redemption Wall (2012). Mixed media (detail).
Fig. 10. Five Letter Word Dictionaries (2012). Manipulated dictionary, pen on paper (detail).
INTRODUCTION
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) affects two to three percentage of the world’s population
(www.understandingocd.tripod.com/ocd/facts/statistics.html), and this exhibition explores its impact
on the behaviour of affected persons. OCD is sometimes referred to as ’Brain Lock’ (Schwartz 1997:
XV) because four key structures of the brain lock together, resulting in the brain’s sending messages
that are false but not recognized as such by the affected person.
The exhibition Fivel Etter Words Other Tunes comprises five separate but consciously integrated
works which communicate my experiences with OCD by highlighting my own obsessions, primarily a
fixation on the number five. My research has also examined works by other artists who deal with the
subject of obsession.
BACKGROUND AND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
In religious structures, chanting and other ceremonial rituals are performed as acts of redemption to
save sinners from the power of evil. Although I consider these belief systems to be false, mirroring my
own false brain messaging, I also carry out repetitive thoughts and behaviours, attempting to ward off
mental illness, and feel driven to submit to a rigid set of self-imposed rules, performing physical acts,
such as finger tapping, or acts that occur only in my head, like obsessive chanting.
FIVEL ETTER WORDS OTHER TUNES AND RESEARCHED ARTISTS
The five works in this exhibition are a wall installation titled The Redemption Wall (figs. 2, 3, 9, 10, 14,
15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23) and an accompanying sound installation titled Five Letter Word
Wall Sounds; a film, The Red Horse, incorporating readymade poetryi; a sound artwork titled White
Tiles Music Happy Smile Hotel and reconstructed dictionaries titled Five Letter Word Dictionaries, in
which I underlined all the five letter words. Like my obsession with the number five, Yayoi Kusamaii (b
1939) is obsessed with dots, accumulations and repetition (Hoptman, Tatehata & Kulterman 2000:44),
as seen in Airmail Stickers (1962) (fig. 4). Symptomatically, she and I share a fear of depersonalization (Hoptman et al 2000:14), a state where one no longer perceives the reality of one’s self or environment (Harper 2010).
Wang Qingsong’s (b 1966) installation Competition (2000) (fig. 6) shows the proliferation of the billboards of competing consumer brands, echoing his childhood recollections of China’s cultural revolution, when the walls of the cities were papered with political posters (Vine-Richard 2011:110-117).
The Redemption Wall is papered with lists of five letter words, and pages from an OCD self-help book,
as in my mind there is a revolution between mental stability and instability. In Five Letter Word Wall
Sounds, my voice repeats words from the five letter word lists through a set of headphones.
In Mayfair A Wheelbarrow for Richard (1977-2000) (fig. 5), Robert Mac Pherson (b 1937) reconstructed a new Australian vocabulary by reviving slang words and phrases disappearing from his society
(Murray-Cree 2010:58), whereas I have deconstructed dictionaries (figs. 1, 7, 8, 11 and 13) then
reconstructed them by underlining all the five letter words. I also created five letter word poemsiii.
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WORK METHODOLOGY
Tristan Zara (1896-1963) formulated a system for creating Dadaiv poems
(Anderson 2002:4): Take a newspaper. Take some scissors. Choose an
article in the newspaper that is the length you wish to give the poem. Cut
out the article. Then cut out each of the words that make up the article
and put them in a bag. Shake gently. Then remove each cutting one after
the other. Copy them carefully in the order they leave the bag. The poem
will resemble you.
This reflects my ritualised way of creating ready-made poemsv.
The script for The Red Horse consists of automatic writingvi and two
ready-made poems, Lyssa and White Tiles Music Happy Smile Hotel.
I converted the poem White Tiles Music Happy Smile Hotel into a song
by composing music and singing one verse at the end of the film. The
complete song, also titled White Tiles Music Happy Smile Hotel, became a sound installation.
Fig. 11. Five Letter Word Dictionaries (2012). Manipulated dictionary,
pen on paper (detail).
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VISUAL SYMBOLISM
My visual language integrates five symbols extended into personal metaphors. These are a red horse, a
dice with five dots on each side, the symbol for copper, a pentagram and the musical symbol known as
“dal segno” (WNWCD 2010. Sv “dal segno”). Five stamps (fig 12) were made, one for each symbol, and I
repeatedly stamped these images onto the paper on The Redemption Wall and in the dictionaries.
Fig. 12. Ink Stamps.
Fig. 13. (Page 12 & 13) Five Letter Word Dictionaries (2012). Manipulated dictionary,
pen on paper (detail).
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The red horse carries several meanings in my work, as metaphorically I am the horse and his shadow
is my mental darkness. Most significant are the psychological interpretations. Sigmund Freud (18561939) describes the ego-id conflict of the mind as the horse guiding the rider rather than the rider
guiding the horse (D’Alleva 2005:91). Since reason guides behaviour, in OCD the compulsive behaviour of the id becomes disruptive and steers reason off track. According to Carl Jung (1875-1961),
wild horses symbolize the uncontrollable instinctive drives that erupt from the subconscious. He maintains that the shadow contains the unconscious aspects of a personality that have been lost, rejected
or non-integrated (1964:93).
In The Red Horse, the horse and his shadow have been integrated as one entity, alluding to the psychosis inherent in OCD; and the fable revolves around their journey into the abyss. The abyss as a
sign of depression underpins my work: “And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes
into you” (Nietzsche 1907:970).
As with OCD, my dice offers only a fixed, predictable outcome.
Dal segno instructs the musician to repeat a passage of music continuously, as my brain ‘instructs’ me to chant and count
repetitively. The copper rods are ambiguous, suggesting both
potential conductors of ECT, yet protection against lightning:
standing for the OCD medication that protects the affected person from ECT. The pentagram is also a sign of protectionvii (Nozedar 2010:124), and here refers to redemptive religious rituals
and the behavioural rituals provoked by OCD.
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CONCLUSION
OCD is a debilitating disorder affecting a significant number of people worldwide. Artists exploit a
variety of visual symbols and engage in many forms of creative activity to inform and raise questions
around obsession and compulsion. Kusama epitomises this when she speaks of her own artwork: “It is
hard to say after all, whether these signature repetitions were caused by my disease….or by my own
intention.” (Hoptman et al 2000:37).
Fig. 14 - 17. The Redemption Wall (2012). Mixed media (detail).
Fig. 18 - 20. (Page16) The Redemption Wall (2012). Mixed media (detail).
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ENDNOTES
i
The two poems are titled Lyssa and White Tiles Music Happy Smile Hotel, the latter becoming a song
for the film script as well as a separate sound artwork.
ii
Kusama is a film-maker, song-writer and poet. In 1968, Yayoi Kusama directed and starred in her own
16mm film Self-obliteration. In 1974 she wrote and composed Song of a Manhattan Suicide Addict. Her
book of poems Violet obsessions: Poems were published in1998 (Hoptman et al 2000:26,112,131).
iii
Jacques Derrida’s (1930-2004) theory of deconstruction (D’ Alleva 2005:90) explores how know-
ledge and meaning are constructed. If words are the signifier and the hidden meaning of the words
the signified, then the shifting play of signs causes tension between meaning and non-meaning.
iv
Dada (Clarke 2001:72) was an anarchist movement which flourished between c.1915 and c.1922.
The name was chosen at random by inserting a penknife into the pages of a dictionary.
v
I close my eyes and think of words or feelings. At random I open a book, magazine or newspaper
and underline all the five letter words on the two pages in front of me, listing them, and using only
these words to create a single poem.
vi
Andre Breton (1896-1966) defined surrealism as psychic automatism and stated that it reveals
the true functioning of thought, referring to the unconscious acts of drawing and writing (Waldberg
1997:20).
vii
In Eastern traditions and Paganism.
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He who fights
with monsters
might take care
lest he thereby
becomes a
monster.
And when you
gaze long into
an abyss
the abyss also
gazes into you
(Nietzsche (1907).
Fig. 21. The Redemption
Wall (2012).
Mixed media (detail).
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APPENDIX
THE RED HORSE
Please sit down.
Yesterday during our session you told me that you no longer feel comfortable, and that you
have this longing to leave. You also said that you wanted to travel to this new place. In your
mind, what does this new place look and sound like?
Angel birds chirp gaily songs
Azure rains cover magic hills
White horse flies above fairy trees
Tiger plays under giant leave
Abaca palms sweep balmy sandy plane
While hippo swims below clear green shiny river
Adder nears happy happy place
Swans in scary mists arise
Devil demon drums salvo satin skies
Sassy snaky samba
But something must have happened to make you want to leave, and go to this new place. Can
you tell me how it all began?
It all began while the red horse was crying blood tears under orphan skies
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Why was the red horse crying?
Because he saw the shadow, those evil years found great white beast under dying trees
I’m sure that this must have been frightening! Where did the shadow come from?
From alien birth canal, gauzy brain pipes, wounded dream place
What lived in these gauzy brain pipes?
Woman snail in jello chair, sweet liver smell
This must have been a horrible smell! What was the women- snail doing?
She showed hallucinating birds the death tents
Death tents! So you are saying that the tents were a place where the birds went to die. I am sure
that some of the birds were flying above the tents before they went inside to die. What did they
see from above?
A white cow crossing the red river to the other side
What was on the other side?
The red horse kneeling before hysterical mountains, a gazelle dragging angry longing and that blue
laughter of raging swallows
Where and, why were they dying?
They were dying in the tree of tongues because they drank the voices of ancient crocodiles, the red
horse saw this and flew away
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I get the feeling that the red horse became very scared. Where did he fly to?
He tumbled from holy windows, hallelujah! He flew over the hollow forest from where he could see the
hour-glass dessert where fury was born, oh sorrowful moan
This moaning, what did it sound like?
It sounded like white bread noise
Who was making the noise?
It was the trapped baobab and the red horse
Where were they trapped?
They were trapped in the house of burning ice where the thunder-volt volcano’s gorge rose
What kind of place was this?
It was the White Tiles Music Happy Smile Hotel
Why did the red horse go to the Happy Hotel?
He tangoed with the abyss and they held each other close. The red horse was very weak so they
brought him to this place of luminous warmth where they laid him down and sang to him
Do you remember the name of the song?
Yes. White Tiles Music Happy Smile Hotel
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Would you please sing the song to me?
Glass ocean tired steal night
Flame storm
World class light
Laden tables lamps toast
White Lilly blues
Sweet Cuban dream field
Coded walls metal sofas
Blood pillow
Lemon stain sheet
Happy smile Hotel
White Tiles Music
Edged rooms cover black river and other older dream
Smoke boxes
Razor mouth steak
Brain rests in woods
Steep steps curve below
Abyss
Fig. 22. The Redemption Wall (2012).
Mixed media (detail).
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anderson, A. 2002. History of the Surrealist Movement. Chicago: University Press of Chicago.
Clarke, M. 2001. Art terms. London: Oxford University Press.
De’ Alleva, A. 2005. Methods and theories of art history. London: Laurence King Publishers.
Harper, D. 2010. Online etymology dictionary. Sv “depersonalization”. Available at: http://www.etymonline.com/
Hoptman, L., Tatehata, A., & Kulterman, U. 2000. Yayoi Kusama. London: Phaidon.
Jung, CG. 1964. Man and his symbols. London: Aldus Books Limited.
Murray-Cree, L. 2010. Maddock and Mac Pherson. Modern Painters 22(6), September:58.
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Nietzsche,F. 1907. Beyond good and evil. New York: Mc Millan & Company.
Nozedar, A. 2010. Signs and symbols source book. China: South China Printing Company.
Scwartz, JM. 1997. Brain lock: free yourself from obsessive compulsive behaviour. New York: Harper
& Collins.
Vine-Richard, I. 2011. Post-Mao photo lessons. Modern Painters 99(4), April:110-117.
Waldberg, P. 2001. Surrealism. New York: Thames 7 Hudson.
Webster’s New World College dictionary. 2010. Sv “dal segno”. Cleveland: Whiley Publishing.
www.understandingocd.tripod.com/ocdfacts/statistics.htm (accessed 15 September 2012).
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In her poem Lost (1998) Kusama portray the nature
of obsession.
it fell to the earth
a stone from a pocket collection
the beggar return beneath his bridge
there’s a hole in his pocket and it has fallen
among the stones of the riverbed he roams each day
searching for that one stone
from his pocket
where did it drop? he searches the whole riverbed
but can’t find it
it’s shaped just like all the other stones
a graveyard of stones stretching to the end of the universe…
(Yayoi Kusama cited by Hoptman et al 2000:131).
Fig. 23. The Redemption Wall (2012).
Mixed media (detail).
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Fig. 24 & 25. Fivel Etter Words Other Tunes Exhibition 2012 (The Redemption Wall, Five Letter Word Dictionaries,
Five Letter Word Wall Sounds (audio), White Tiles Music Happy Smile Hotel (audio), The Red Horse (video)).
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Fig. 26. Fivel Etter Words Other Tunes Exhibition 2012 (The Redemption Wall, Five Letter Word Dictionaries,
Five Letter Word Wall Sounds (audio), White Tiles Music Happy Smile Hotel (audio), The Red Horse (video)).
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Fig. 27. Fivel Etter Words Other Tunes Exhibition 2012 (The Redemption Wall, Five Letter Word Dictionaries,
Five Letter Word Wall Sounds (audio), White Tiles Music Happy Smile Hotel (audio), The Red Horse (video)).
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Fig. 28. Fivel Etter Words Other Tunes Exhibition 2012 (The Redemption Wall, Five Letter Word Dictionaries,
Five Letter Word Wall Sounds (audio), White Tiles Music Happy Smile Hotel (audio), The Red Horse (video)).
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CURRICULUM VITAE MEM SEVENSTER
Born 1960 in Johannesburg. Lives and works in Stellenbosch.
Fourth year BA Fine arts, UNISA. Advanced Painting, UNISA, 2003.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2004 UNISA Student Exhibition
2004 Waste-Con Exhibition
2004 Enviro-Serv, Sun City
2009 30 x 30 Exhibition, University of Stellenbosch Gallery
2010 Art B Gallery UNISA Third Year Group Exhibition
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