PicoBlog

In the Spring of 2016, the artist Lin May Saeed (1973, Würzburg - 2023, Berlin) and I exchanged a series of emails. She wrote from Berlin and I wrote from Guerneville, California. It was supposed to be an interview, and I sent a series of questions about styrofoam, but instead of answers, Lin sent me her “notes” on her experiences with that peculiar white material. I’d always been repulsed by styrofoam, but seeing what Lin did with it completely transformed my perception. The text was never published. The images I posted here all use styrofoam as a fundamental material and several of them are from the current show of at the Georg Kolbe Museum.

Lin’s Notes:

Styrofoam is the only material that i know, where of you can see its smallest units, i mean the tiny balls that it consists of. Its like you could zoom into the materials, the atoms.. as if you could work on this microphysical level, and it will become visible.

In the very beginning when i started to work with styrofoam, everybody asked me how i stand the characteristics of it, like the sound that it makes when you cut it, the small pieces that migrate everywhere, charging themselves electrically etc.

Now i love the material, and so do the 2 rabbits that live part-time in my studio. They mostly add some changes on my styrofoam works by nibbling and mining them, and they love to sleep on it because it feels warm. If it would have even the slightest chemical vapour, they would avoid to touch it. But i somehow think it is a good aspect about this strange stuff that they like it too.

I actually do use some pieces of wood from time to time, like matches or something in that size, that i combine with other materials. Also i use wood for pedestals. And i convince myself that this little use of wood is acceptable. Why acceptable? Because i would not feel comfortable to use complete trunks actually. I do not think that i could create something greater than the tree, the complex ecosystem, that it was before. 

I like the idea, that styrofoam is a material from behind the Matrix. 

It was not invented for having a special surface or look, but for its characteristics to insulate air. Thats why it seems to me a very sincere material in visual matters. 98% of it consists of air , and i find it inspiring to have air as my main material. As the majority of my works are huge, there is never a handling problem, because styrofoam weighs nearly nothing. Even big reliefs i can carry with one hand. 

If a styrofoam work falls down from a pedestal, it falls slowly (as a snowflake) , because of its little weight, so it does not even get damaged. 

Even if the material is somehow „ugly“ i could not imagine another material that is so contemporary. 1.

One more thought about the „Matrix“, at the moment i am obsessed to look at things of everyday life or art, under the aspect, is this infront? or behind the Matrix? 

Most of the styrofoam i use i get from construction sites. Theres a lot of building work at the moment in Berlin, so you can find the panels everywhere on the streets.

Last week, I released a new track, Theme of Good Will. You can find it on Soundcloud (below), Spotify, etc. along with the many other Themes I’ve been releasing over the last six months.

I recently performed this song for my show, PAN at suns.works in Zurich, which is temporarily located in the Hochhaus der Palm. This is the final week to see the show in person, if you happen to be in Switzerland. I’ve posted some works from that show below and you can see the whole exhibition here.

I recommend playing the music as you look.

ncG1vNJzZmiqn6jAtLXMqKWippljwLau0q2YnKNemLyue89oo6KmXaKuunnSmpyenKNiu7DAxKw%3D