A Tidy House, A Tidy Mind
series of 10
110 x 232 cm each
2008
In a white standard shelf stand white standard files labelled with white standard inscriptions. The labels depict different numerical and lexical systems of order from all over the world, using simple black type on white ground.
Because the spectator never knows all of the symbol sets, he or she cannot judge in any given case, whether the order is maintained or messed up. On the other hand, he or she will know at least one of the systems, and he or she will believe, that the others represent similar states of order. But one of the shelves is full of unlabeled files. In the next one the files are arranged to compose the sentence “Ordnung ist das halbe Leben.” (German, approximately: “A tidy house, a tidy mind”).
Here the only thing remainig is pure order. The filed material is completely submitted to it. On the one hand, the system of order carrys itself ad absurdum, on the other hand it is at the same time the leading power to which everything is submitted.