Twan Lugten [1990]
Rotterdam NL
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Hey □□□□□□□ I'm still working on the ideas we discussed earlier in my CBK development project.
Alongside the work on the black panels, a textual piece with a publication is also emerging. I would like to include a written text from you in this work.
The piece is a simple A5 display book, containing a collection of “cut outs” from thriller book covers (or skins) [see photo], sketches, diary notes, and probably some texts from a bioethicist/doctor and fellow artists. I will then digitize this work and attempt to publish it in a small number.
The themes that are becoming more concrete in the process are:
1. (Breaking through) the plane, the skin, the blister → the membrane between the internal or internalized/the repressed id/your Shadow/the transient and doubtful
vs.
the external and expressed/the absolute [e.g. Western Scientific tradition]/the superego/the seductive clarity/the right and eternal.
[Breaking the surface, allowing the hidden and undefinable to pour into the world, is for me a resistance against representation and consumable image culture.]
2. The black, necrotic skin → decay, the color black as a portent of mortality.
3. Tangible, lived existence
vs.
Digital existence and the material consequence of this existence (specifically: soot as black pigment, resulting from incomplete combustion processes, but also black as in “new dark age” - a time where we lose grip on and understanding of technology [possibly driven by AI]).
4. [concerning AI:] In the drive for efficiency without human agency lies the paradox of not wanting to exist yet actively avoiding death. This relinquishing of control offers a semblance of relief from the burden of existence. AI is a proxy, providing an escape from the complexities of life and agency yet perpetuating the destruction of world and those “othered” by contemporary Western society.
5. I am researching the use of the pigment “ivory black” or “bone black”. Bone black is a carbon pigment made from burned bones.
I think I am trying to evert the boundaries of a body, to turn a skin inside out so that a hidden materiality we are not allowed or accustomed to see, pours back into the world. In Western Science lies the act of enclosure, of boundaries and borders. Intimate knowledge of being in an environment - be it earthly or otherworldly – is severed through regulated regimes of understanding.
There is something psychotic to this urge. Psychosis could be seen as a tear in or inversion of the barrier [a conceptual skin] between mind-body and environment. The tear affects the external environment in such a way that it is fully altered on basis of the premises of the mind-body pouring out of it.
6. I work on panels of black carbon fiber and epoxy. Carbon fiber is heavily used in the construction of engines/military equipment/technology, and can be read as their “skin.” The material harbors an emancipatory desire [light/fast/strong].
I realize I’m writing quite associatively. I hope you could make a bit more sense of my intuitions. I would like to ask if you would write a short essay as part of my work (as in “essayer” – trying, just as Fontana’s works are always “concepts” or “studies” instead of definitives). The form is entirely up to you. The form could even be a reply to this email, or handwritten notes.
Remains for me to say: I have a [modest] budget available to accommodate for your efforts.
I hope you feel like contributing. Best regards and looking forward to your response.
Sincerely,
□□□□
PS Attached some photos