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Thekla Ehling
Vergiszmeinnicht / Forgetmenot
Artist's booklet in box, 11,5 x 15 cm., 104
pp., 79 ill., Ltd. Ed. of 500 copies
Kehrer 2011

"Superficially, it evokes childish naiveté, but one sees it often on gravestones. Taken literally, it reveals a quiet, imploring plea. And connected with it is the certainty of our own transience. It is a plant name that is almost as ancient as our language. The forget-me-not. The book is dedicated to Arno Fischer, with whom Thekla Ehling learned how to see and how to make photographs. A few years ago, Fischer published a book about his own garden. In it are several Polaroid images that bear witness to how persistently the teacher studied the world around his home over the decades. That Thekla Ehling has chosen to make reference to this is no accident. It is a forget-me-not. Where do we turn to seek reassurance? ? the images in the book seem to ask. About ourselves, our lives, our curious dreams. There are always three: three states, three interpretations, three truths. Taken as a whole, they seem to cancel each other out, floating in a fragile balance, at once present and absent. Who believes that images have an inherent magic? One is simply reluctant to capture them in words." (Christoph Schaden)

Texts by David Almond from the book ?My Name is Mina? - Textdesign: Gesine Grotrian-Steinweg

 


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