Stories to Build Yourself, 1982
Folder with 9 etchings
Etchings on zinc plates, each approx. 27 × 22 cm
Total edition of 25 copies, plus individual sheets, approx. 18–20 copies each
The folder “Stories to Build Yourself” brings together nine etchings that function like building blocks of an open narrative. Each sheet is independent, but at the same time part of a larger context. Figures, machine fragments, hybrid bodies, and grotesque scenes encounter each other in changing constellations. Depending on the combination, new interpretations arise—from absurd machine fantasies to surreal masquerades to visionary allegories.
The choice of title already hints at the character of these works: not a single story is told, but rather a stockpile of images is offered from which the viewer can compose their own stories. In this way, the sheets playfully take up the idea of memory and identity as something constructed and changeable – a thought that recurs in later work in the concept of COLLECTIVE MEMORY.
The technique of etching on zinc plates allows for fine lines that oscillate between meticulous drawing and expressive gesture. This creates a tension between rigor and improvisation, between technical precision and grotesque exaggeration.
Dr. Pelle Solus
Dr. Pelle Solus