Lovande mutanter
Promising mutants
Alexander Wireen
C Alexander Wireen 2013
Tryckt 2013 av Firma Alexander Wireen, Högdalen, Sverige.
Andra omarbetade upplagan.
http://a-x.name/
isbn: 978-91-980840-1-6
Verklista / List of Works
1. Eldad bro. Trä, tusch, kol, sågspån, lera.
Fired Bridge. Wood, india ink, sawdust, clay.
2. Fiskskriket. Mdf, shellack, kolpulver, syntisk päls, siren.
Fish Scream. Mdf, shellack, carbon powder, synthetic fur, siren.
3. Lovande mutant. Akrylfärg på vägg.
Promising Mutant. Acrylic color on wall.
4. Vallmo tung av frö: Tidskapsel. Video, 26:33.
Poppy Heavy with Seed: Time capsule. Video, 26:33.
5. Duvslaget. Pvac-tempera, sandpapper, aluminiumfolie, etanolbaserad lack.
The Dovecote. Pvac-tempera, sandpaper, aluminum foil, ethanol based lacquer.
6. Gipskanin. Oljefärg på glasfiberväv.
Plaster Rabbit. Oil color on fiberglass cloth.
7. Spegelmonument. Textil, vattenanlagt bladsilver på glas, shellack.
Mirror Monument. Textile, water gilded silver leaf on glass,
shellack.
8. Mjukt tomt utrymme. Vakuummetallisering på akrylpolymer
+ kalciumsulfat. Soft Blank Space. Vacuum metallizing on acrylic polymer + calcium sulfate.
9. Smält snö. Snö och pvac-emulsion på lakansväv.
Melted snow. Snow and pvac-emulsion on sheeting.
10. Vit målning. Pvac-emulsion, krita, zinkvitt, transparent vit
spraylack.
White painting. Pvac-emulsion, chalk, zink white, transparent
white spray lacquer.
11. Tre dubbelburar. Gips, tusch, shellackmättad kartong, hönsnät, mässingsstavar, oljefärg, trä.
Three Double Cages. Plaster, india ink, shellack saturated cardboard, wire netting, brass rods, oil color, wood.
12. Svart målning. Pvac-emulsion, zinkvitt, kolpulver, oljefärg, svart
damarfernissa.
Black Painting. Pvac-emulsion, zink white, carbon powder, oil
color, black damar varnish.
13. Hasp av Torgny Björn. Förzinkad ståltråd.
Hasp by Torgny Björn. Zincked steel wire.
14. Vallmo tung av frö. Video, 17:52. Medverkande: Jana Richtr,
Julia Bondesson. Tack till Torgny Björn, Anders Karlsson och
Margareta Wireen.
Poppy Heavy with Seed. Video, 17:52. Cast: Jana Richtr, Julia Bondesson. Thanks to Torgny Björn, Anders Karlsson and
Margareta Wireen
Rabarberodlare: Torgny Björn och Margareta Wireen.
Rhubarb growers: Torgny Björn and Margareta Wireen.
Hjälp med hängning av utställningen 2013: Magnus Broddy.
Help during hanging of the exhibition 2013: Magnus Broddy.
Grottan / The Cave
Blockgrottan är inte skapad av en långsamt framåtskridande
process i vilken olika krafter verkat mot eller med varandra
under år eller tusentals år — istället har de stora stenblocken
fallit från bergväggen och slumpartat hamnat så som de nu
ligger under en kanske bara några sekunder lång jordbävning
för 10 000 år sedan. De har legat stilla sedan dess. Nästan inga
av de erfarenheter jag har av miljöer ovan jord går att applicera
på grottan.
The talus cave is not created by a slowly advancing process
during which different forces have acted against or with each
other during years or thousands of years — instead the big
rocks have fallen from the face of the mountain and randomly
landed where they now are during a maybe just a few seconds
long earthquake 10,000 years ago. They have been lying still
since then. Nearly none of the experiences that I have from
environments above ground can be applied to the cave.
En annan art / Another Kind
Kaoset växer inte
det har alltid varit oändligt
en del jämför en utspilld flaska
med en vattenpöl
andra spiller bara ut
men mer upptäcks
*för mycket
The chaos is not growing
it has always been infinite
some compare a spilled bottle
to a pool of water
some just spill
but more is discovered
*too much
Lovande mutanter / Promising mutants
Varje barn som föds är en mutant. Varje barn är den genetiska
kodens nyaste och mest kreativa svar på problemet att anpassa
sig till andra livsformer och energier på denna planet. Den
vuxna generationen, det mänskliga samhället, försöker systematiskt att blockera denna lovande mutant.
Timothy Leary, 1966
Every baby that is born is mutant. Every baby is the genetic
code’s newest and most creative answer to the problem of adopting to the other forms of life and energy on this planet. The
generation of adults, human society, attempts systematically to
block this mutant promise.
Timothy Leary, 1966
Jag trodde jag var ett djur / I Believed I Was An Animal
Jag trodde jag var ett djur med tunn ljus hud som inte tålde
solen, och mitt djur hade ingen päls utan på vintern var det
helt utlämnat till kylan. Det var ett dresserat djur, men mycket mottagligt: Varje möte med omgivningens temperaturer
och färger (för att inte tala om hur kraftfullt det påverkades
av möten med andra djur av samma art) fick det att ändra
sinnestillstånd mer eller mindre. Samtidigt kan vi kalla djuret
transparent; man kunde inte se igenom det, men in i det. Djurets kärna utgjordes av ett kärl för ruttnande växtmaterial.
Även andra djur kunde tuggas sönder och fylla detta utrymme
— men då nästan alltid med en enbart mättande effekt, helt
saknande den nervpåverkande effekt som många svampar och
växter hade på djuret.
Dess inre liv var inte bara uppdelat i det som det behövde
göra och det som det ville göra; där fanns även avdelningar för
handlingar som det trodde att andra ville eller inte ville att
det skulle göra.
Barriärer gjorda av olika material.
I believed I was an animal with thin light skin that could
not endure the sun, and my animal had no fur but in the winter
it was fully exposed to the cold. It was a trained animal, but
very receptive: Every encounter with the temperature or colors of the surroundings (not to speak of how strongly it reacted
when meeting other animals of its kind) affected its mental
mood more or less. At the same time we may call this animal
transparent; one could not see through it, but inside it. The
core of the animal consisted of a vessel which held rotting vegetable matter. Other animals could also be chewed and used
to fill this space — but then only to satiate, totally lacking the
nerve-affecting effect that many mushrooms and plants had on
the animal.
Its inner life was not only divided into that which it had
to do and that which it wanted to do; there were also a sections
dedicated to actions which it believed others wanted or did not
want it to perform.
Barriers made out of different materials.
Kattmat / Cat Food
En doft av kattmat
dött djur
sanddyner av betongpulver
det var en stor byggnad här
en ingång, sedan kattmat
en ramp
kattmat
dött djur
en elbedövad hjärnas rot klyvs av sågen
nu blir jag hungrig
så jag stannar mitt i gången
och tuggar på ett tatuerat öra
A smell of cat food
dead animal
dunes of pulverized concrete
it was a big building here
an entrance, then cat food
a ramp
cat food
dead animal
the root of an electrically anaesthetized brain sliced by the saw
now I get hungry
so I stop in the middle of the corridor
and chew on a tattooed ear
Haspen / The Hasp
En krok i koppar- eller järntråd kan formas på många olika
sätt. Idag när jag närmare betraktade en viss krok, vilken jag
funnit särskilt tillfredsställande att haspa, såg jag att den var
böjd inte rätvinkligt, utan i en droppform med den smala ändan nedåt. När den häktas i dörrens märla pressar dörrens
dragkraft ned märlan i botten på kroken med ett smäck, och
dörren åker samtidigt lite utåt.
Sinnena uppskattar bekräftelser och återkoppling på att
något blivit genomfört. Kroken kan ge det — speciellt om fingertopparna har kontakt med den när den smäcker i botten.
Smällen definierar slutet på en utförd uppgift. Fysisk återkoppling kan till och med öka känslan av att ett arbete verkligen
utförts — Nästan alla tangentbord till en dator har till exempel utformats så att en mer eller mindre tydlig knäppning kan
kännas när tangenten trycks ned. Oftast har denna knäppning,
en funktion för fysisk återkoppling att en knapptryckning registrerats, inget direkt samband med knappens funktion. Själva
brytaren ger i sig oftast inte denna typ av återkoppling och
tidpunkten för återkoppling sammanfaller därför inte nödvändigtvis med tidpunkten för strömkretsens slutning — detta kan
ge en märklig känsla om en knapp av någon anledning trycks
ned mycket långsamt. Skillnaden i tid mellan strömbrytarens
slutning och återkopplingens klick kan då bli tydligt.
A hook in copper or iron wire can be formed in many
ways. Today, when I looked closer at a particular hook, which
I had found especially satisfying to hasp, I saw that it was bent
not at a straight angle, but in droplet-form with the narrow
end down. When it is hooked into the staple of the door, the
traction of the door presses it down into the bottom of the fence
staple with a smack, and the door simultaneously moves slightly
outward.
The senses appreciate confirmation and feedback regarding an accomplished action. The hasp can give that; especially
if the fingertips have contact with it when it smacks into the
bottom. The snap defines the end of an accomplished action.
Physical feedback can even enhance the feeling of a work actually being done — Most computer keyboards are designed so
that a more or less prominent snap can be felt when the key is
pushed. Often this snap has no direct connection to the function of the button: The connector does not always give off this
kind of feedback, and the time for feedback therefore does not
necessarily coincide with the moment of closing of the circuit
— this can result in a strange feeling when a button for some
reason is pushed very slowly. The difference in time between
the closing of the circuit and the click of the feedback can thus
reveal itself.
Killen blev skjuten / The Guy Got Shot
Killen blev skjuten i huvudet med en speciell kula som expanderar. Eftersom Polisen i första hand siktar på knäna har de
ammunition som expanderar inne i kroppen. De flesta av rånarnas vapen visade sig vara attrapper. Men ett skott som ej
avfyrats av poliserna hittades senare på platsen. Jag tatuerar
en undulat i pannan — brutalitet. Putsningsbeteenden.
The guy got shot in the head with a special bullet that
expands. Because the Police primarily aims at he knees they
carry ammunition that expands inside of the body. Most of
the robbers’ weapons turned out to be replicas. But one shot
that was not fired by the police was later found at the location.
I tattoo a budgerigar on the forehead — brutality. Grooming
behaviour.
Mold Bridge Sketch
Reflections on an unrendered sculpture —
Mold spores are present everywhere in the air. In 2009
I made a work called »Mold Window» in which a large glass
panel of a building was covered in agar-agar mold substrate,
left exposed to air for approximately one hour and subsequently sealed by applying a layer of thin plastic foil which
stuck to the sticky surface of the agar. The substrate is made
as follows:
Ingredients:
1 large potato with peel, fine sliced
20 grams agar-agar
20 milliliters glucose
1 liter water
The ingredients are boiled for one hour after which the contents
are filtered and the volume is measured. If less than a liter,
add hot water until the solution is again one liter.
Agar-agar is a gelatinous substance derived from algae.
It is liquid when hot but coagulates as it gets colder. Thus,
when being applied to the relatively cold window surface with
a brush it coagulates, forming a layer on the vertical glass
surface.
During the hour that the agar substrate is left to contamination by airborne particles it collects a big amount of mold
spores. These will grow during the following weeks (until the
agar has fully dried, a process which is inhibitated by the plastic foil). As the mold spores grow, you can see that there are
different kinds of mycelium that have a variety of colors and
ways of growing. You can follow the growth of the mycelium
threads from each mold spore.
In the work »Mold Brige» I use the same substrate applied to a wooden bridge modeled after decorative bridges
found in parks. The bridge has got an odd-looking reeling
at one side.
During the conception of »Mold Brige» I consulted some
friends to get thoughts on how it would be displayed most
favorable: Was it to have some kind of bubble or transparent
box around it, so that you could not get close to it and must
look at a distance?
The most common suggestion was to not have a container around the bridge. It was said the »repulsive nature» of
the moldy object would get lost and commodified if it was contained in a protective environment. The container would thus
protect the viewer, making the confrontation with the moldy
object less physical and less direct. You would not feel the
smell of the mold or risk touching it.
During the discussions I realized that a person who is actually repulsed by the mold would have a somewhat reversed
reaction towards containment of the bridge than I would have.
My relation to the mold would involve interest and a will to
look closer, not repulsion. So for us who find the mold interesting, a container means that there is something inhibiting our
desire to look close. For the persons that found the mold repulsive, such a container would confirm and cement the distance
they desired.
The Function of the Tent
For me, the sculpture would loose much of its value if there
were no plastic tent around it. The tent is a boundary that
has to be crossed to get close to the sculpture. The function
of the tent was more clear in the form that I first imagined it:
a bubble in clear, inflated plastics. Since I want to get close
to the sculpture to see the details of its surface (how the mold
grows et cetera) this was perceived as an obstacle to me. As
written earlier other persons might perceive this instead as a
welcome protection from smell and risk of getting in contact
with the mold.
The formal function of the bubble has more to do with
a baby trying to grab a fruit than with the framing effect. If a
baby is presented two fruits out of which one is contained inside
a glass box and one is out in the open, easily accessible, the
baby goes for the glassed banana first (this is my ungrounded
speculation of the outcome of the experiment). I guess this
behavior has been proved beneficial by evolution, if the baby
is hungry it could just get the easily accessible banana. But,
if hunger is not so pressing, there is no need to grab the accessible banana (for example: if no one else is trying to get it) —
but instead it makes sense to secure access to the one in vitro.
If one reaches a critical level of hunger while trying to get that
banana, they can revert to the readily available banana. My
point is that this presumably basic instinct might have something to do with my reason for wanting a bubble around the
mold bridge. This viewpoint has lost some of its significance
now since the »bubble» has transformed into a plastic curtain which has to be passed in order to see the object clearly.
Maybe now the point of having a curtain is also some kind of
tension and excitement of what will be on the other side?
Hallarps Orakel / The Oracle of Hallarp
en sjö med brunt vatten
bäckarna som inte går att räkna
varje bäck flyter ut och blir till nåt annat än en annan
ett flöde har frusit
under en tung björk
om man lyssnar nära så
hör man ljudet av anslagna istappar
och kluckandet
vattnets slag mot sig själv
inarbetar luft
där är rösten
Det finns olika typer av orakel: orakel som är visuella, hörselorakel och även indirekta orakel (någon tolkar vad oraklet säger
och talar det i någorlunda klartext). En gång när jag duschade förstod jag precis hur ett hörselorakel kan låta. Underligt
nog har jag bara en enda gång varit med om att duschstrålens
kollision med badvattnet har alstrat ett sådant ljud. Ljudet är
självklart svårt att beskriva, men kan nog liknas vid ett bubblande vars frekvenssammansättning gjorde att det var mycket
likt talande röster blandade med vattenljud. Man kunde inte
klart urskilja några ord, och jag kunde ej urskilja enskilda röster, men detta ljud låg väldigt nära något som kunde tolkas
som tal.
a lake with brown water
the brooks that cannot be counted
every brook flows out and turn into something else than another
a flow has been frozen
under a heavy birch tree
if one listens close then
one will hear the sound of stricken icicles
and the burbling
the beats of water hitting itself
working air in
there is the voice
There are different kinds of oracles: oracles that are visual, auditory oracles and indirect oracles (somebody interprets what
the oracle says and speaks it in somewhat plain language).
Once when I had a shower, I understood exactly what a hearing oracle would sound like. Peculiarly I have only ones experienced that the collision between the bathwater and the stream of
the shower has made such a sound. The sound was a bubbling
similar in frequencys to that of speaking voices. One could not
distinguish individual voices, but this sound was very close to
something that could be interpreted as speech.
Utrymme för oanvändbara titlar / Space for Unusable Titles
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Jag trodde jag var ett djur / I Believed I Was an Animal
Fiskar duschar inte / Fish Do Not Shower
Lovande mutanter / Promising Mutants
Ragnarök — Chant of the Drone
Lukta här så kommer du hit till mig / Smell This and You
Will Come Here to Me
→ Kastar ringen till Misan / Throwing the Ring to Misan
Ett rum / A space
Någon skulle behöva städa. Rummets väggar var, när jag lämnade det, täckta av kalkavlagringar. Vatten droppade in genom
det hål i taket som vi öppnat för att få ut produkterna. Jag
ville ej överlåta städningen till någon annan och ringde hyresvärden och berättade att jag ville återställa rummet innan vi
lämnade det. Hen svarade att det var omöjligt, men att jag
heller ej behövde oroa mig för att någon annan skulle behöva
städa det: Rummet var för alltid obrukbart, ostädbart. Ingen
kunde någonsin gå in i det rummet igen.
Somebody would have to clean. The walls of the room
were, when I left it, covered with lime deposits. Water was
dripping through the hole that we made in the roof to get the
products out. I did not want to leave the cleaning for somebody
else, so I called the landlord and told that I wanted to restore
the room before we left. They said it was impossible, but that
I had no need to worry about somebody else having to clean
it: The room was forever unusable, uncleanable. Nobody could
ever enter that room again.
Rackitacky seedback singing through mossen
Rackitacky seedback singing through mossen knowskarven yerba vitrifikationernas suä.
Jag ville börja med att skriva att inget av det som står
i denna text har hänt — fast det är inte sant — allt har hänt.
Orden på pappret är en bild du ser. Bakom bilden finns
upplevelser som gjort att jag kunnat skriva dem. Upplevelsen
kan vara en första- eller andrahandsupplevelse. Jag uttrycker
upplevelsen i orden jag skriver.
Kanske drömmer du dig bort till den andra sidan av
texten, min sida. Kanske tänker du att där, i min besittning,
finns bilden i sin klaraste form. Men att skapa bilden kräver så
mycket ansträngning att jag inte längre är närvarande i det jag
skildrar. Jag har fastnat mellan bilden, metoden för att skapa
den, och det avbildade. Du — läsaren — upplever situationen
klarare än jag någonsin gjort — eftersom jag hela tiden är
mer eller mindre upptagen med hur jag ska kunna förmedla
upplevelsen, som om det var det viktigaste! Det innebär att
det är läsaren som är den som kommer närmast upplevelsen
som skildras.
Rackitacky seedback singing through mossen knowskarven yerba vitrifikationernas suä.
I want to start out by writing that nothing that is written
in this text has happened — but that is not true — everything
has happened.
The words on the paper are a picture you see. Behind
the picture are experiences that have enabled me to to write
them. The experience can be first or second hand. I express the
experience in the words that I write. Maybe you dream yourself
away to the other side of the text, my side. Maybe you figure
that there, in my possession, the picture exists in its clearest
form. But to create the picture takes so much effort that I
am no longer present in what I depict. I am stuck between
the picture, the method for creating it, and the pictured. You
— the reader — experiences the situation clearer than I have
ever done — since I am busy all the time with how to mediate
the experience. as if that would be the most important thing!
That means that it is the reader that is coming closest to the
depicted experience.