A letter from Janet

This letter was found inside a second-hand book we bought a couple of weeks ago.

My transcription:

[Address redacted]

8 September 1997

Dearest Paul,

I nearly didn’t send you one of these, because
after all how could you really want it, and you
would have to think of something polite to say
AGAIN. But here you are none the less. Don’t
tell me about the spelling mistake on the back
cover, I have noticed it, now.

I sit snug and embattled in a corner of my
bedroom, most of my work paraphernalia around me,
ditto things like the PCC minutes books and
hist.soc. bumph — SHALL resign from several
activities — and it is almost impossible to
remember or discover where I have put anything,
especially anything that matters and which I have
therefore put away in a safe place. What was my
small study is now Peter and Monika’s horribly
small bedroom. Life is a lot less difficult now
that both parents are here, and that they have
finished their exhausting journey to Lodz and back
with hired van to collect furniture. We did have
their delightful Polish babysitter friend staying
during that week; would certainly have committed
infanticide and suicide if not. Peter is at this
moment on the way to Bolton, Lancs., for a job
interview.

This is not a real letter,
but I hope you are
all right. Love from
Janet

Ohne Titel (Beluga) / Georg Herold

During my stay in Cologne the week before last, I saw many lovely things. I particularly liked the Museum Ludwig, which contains an improbable number of Picassos.

There was one piece that I passed by at first glance, but then came back to. It was this canvas from 1991 by the German artist Georg Herold (born 1947). His material is not paint but caviar and lacquer.

These swirly, helix-like shapes are composed of a number of specks which turn out on closer inspection to be beluga caviar. Each roe is individually numbered, and the numbers become part of the picture (the greater part, in fact, since the numbers take up more space than the roe).

I wonder whether Herold had a point to make – about the value of life? or about our culture of consumerism and waste? I gather from the Tate website that Herold was influenced by Joseph Beuys, and in fact I found I responded especially strongly to the work of Fluxus artists like Beuys, Nam June Paik and George Brecht exhibited in the museum’s basement. I must explore the movement further.

Click on the pictures to view them in higher resolution.

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