Write us in your own words what the book is about and what the writing process looked like.
It explores the idea of voids and losses—ranging from literal holes dug into the ground to irretrievable moments of life. The book shows three series: unglazed ceramic objects, photomontages, and aphoristic texts that are juxtaposed in alternating combinations. The writing process was very much influenced by my current sculptural practice and the other way around. Whether, as in the book, it’s a brick that reappears in ever-changing forms or deeply personal relics like a piece of umbilical cord or the bone of a living mother, in the writing process I took such fragments as a starting point to tell of a longing for stability in a constantly changing world.
Your book, Alright, it means something to me, is just out. Verlag für Moderne Kunst Wien has published it, and it is in both German and English. Why was the bilingualism important in this case?
I started writing in German, which is also my mother tongue. In the context of a residency in Denmark, I then translated some of these very first texts into English to convey what I was working on. Doing so, I sometimes realised a certain inaccuracy in what I wanted to say—probably due to words that can have multiple meanings in German or just due to the non-native speaker distance. After a while I started to translate each subsequent piece of text into English just to get the German text more accurate. So, through this back and forth, it eventually became clear that both languages should be used.
In the book, there is also an essay by Hanne Loreck. How did this collaboration happen?
Hanne Loreck was my professor for theory at the HFBK Hamburg, alongside Thomas Demand for sculpture.
You are a writer and a visual artist. Explain how these working processes differ and what they have in common.
I think the two work processes are very different. The posture alone: when I’m working on sculptures or photographs in the studio, I’m constantly moving back and forth, or I need material, which makes me run around town to get it. In contrast, I write lying on the sofa with my laptop on my legs and hardly move for hours. But apart from that, when I work visually and have decided on a material, it always dictates something to me, such as certain characteristics. And when writing: There’s just nothing to give you a push at the beginning. But the two different approaches inspire each other in the end: I always try to write visually and on the other hand, I often incorporate written elements into my visual work. What the processes really have in common: I need a lot of time to get my work done.
Which previous projects of yours helped make the newest book?
I have occasionally made works that combine images and text, such as an artist’s book in 2013 entitled Ich habe keinen Zweifel wenn du mir sagst daß du keinen Zweifel hast, which was published by Tbooks Cologne in an edition of 30 copies. Here I collected photos from the web showing people from all over the world pointing the Victory Sign at the camera. One letter after the other is placed on each of these photos, and when you leaf through the book, you can read the whole sentence like a flip book. In 2021, I made the work In meinem Körper macht es tocktock, published on tegelmedia, an online blog by the two authors Leif Randt and Jakob Nolte. Besides photos of bent fruit and vegetables, as well as pictogrammed selfies, there are texts that tell of an insecurity towards one’s own body, which was inspired by anonymously published questions on the social platform gutefrage.de.
Where is the book Alright, it means something to me available online, and in which bookstores?
Right now the book is available online on the publisher’s website vfmk.org as well as on common online sites such as amazon.de or thalia.de, among others. The book is stocked in stores such as Pro qm in Berlin, Never Stop Reading Zürich, and Taco! London, to name just a few. Furthermore you can find it in numerous libraries, for instance in Vienna: at Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, University of Applied Arts Vienna and Phileas Artist Library.
Sophie Aigner – www.sophieaigner.de
Sophie Aigner held exhibitions at Union Gallery London, EIKON Schauraum Museumsquartier Wien, Hiltibold St. Gallen, Galerie im Körnerpark Berlin, Industriemuseum Chemnitz, Temporary Gallery Köln, Kunsthalle Schloss Isny, Kunstquartier Bethanien Berlin, D21 Leipzig, Museo dell`Osservatorio Vesuviano Neapel, Kunsthaus Hamburg, Emily Harvey Foundation New York, Sox Berlin. Her writings were published in book publications and art magazines such as Materialeffekte (Jovis Verlag), DieNadel (Universität Leuphana), Über das Zarte (Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt), Alright, it means something to me (Verlag für Moderne Kunst Wien), vonhundert, tegelmedia, Simulacrum Magazine, Textur Magazine.