'Grapheme' Turns Memories Into An Interactive Projection Sculpture

Over the years, whenever we've featured more than a handful of works from Berlin-based master animator, Robert Seidel, we've tried to pick up on the patterns at work in his artworks. But with each new video, vignette, or installation, the only consistent aspects have been that his colorful, abstract animations are as enigmatic and difficult to describe as they are absolutely stunning.

Finally, one German museum has forced the artist to settle down (well, in a sense): the Museum Weisbaden in Germany has put Seidel's new work, grapheme, on permanent display.

grapheme includes abstract sculptural forms made from laser-cut tissues, while mirrors reflect film projections both onto the suspended forms, as well as the viewer—making it an interactive spectacle. Seidel considers the exhibition a translation of memories, manifested in a mixture of 3D hangings and 2D images that together look like datamoshed glitches (a fitting metaphor for how our memories operate).

As with all of Seidel's pieces, understanding the artwork is no easy feat: we think the title, grapheme, pertains to a rare disorder called grapheme → color synesthesia (the arrow is included). From Wikipedia, the neurological phenomenon is diagnosed when "an individual's perception of numbers and letters is associated with the experience of colors." Judging by the work that spans Seidel's career, we'd have no trouble believing the artist a rare breed of synesthete.

Below, the official video documentation of grapheme, released today:

In the artist's own words:

"Hand-drawn sketches were the starting point for the installation 'grapheme.' They delineate the artist’s initial creative idea and serve as the basis for the films projected, as well as for the form of the projection sculpture itself. These sketches are translations of memories and associations, which the artist, like in a diary, has captured from the most varied places and stations of life.

In the amorphous abstract films, the structural state of these sketches is translated into a temporal flow of images. Here, for example events from the past fade away and become connected in continual transformation to new experiences and impressions. The moving film image preserves this reconstruction process, without ever indicating an end-state."

"The organic projection sculpture frees the film from the dogmatic limitations of rectangular silver screens and monitors. These delicate, laser-cut tissues float in the architectural space, light spills over them, and they come to life before the viewers’ eyes." 

"Mirrors reflect the projected film image back onto viewers and allow them to become part of the work in the form of their own reflected image. In the multiple layers of the work, observers’ personal memories, their own reflection, that of the museum environment, the installation and the daylight become bound together into a situational work of art."

Below, more stunning details from grapheme:

For those of you lucky enough to be visiting the Deutschlands between May 24 and 25, Seidel will be curating Penetrating Surfaces in person, a two-part film series set to later include Takeshi Murata, Davide Quayola, Rafaël Rozendaal, and Zeitguised, among others. Also, on May 25, Seidel will be featuring a Masterclass called "Abstract Film between Installation and Architecture." We'll be breaking out our best notebooks and sharpest pencils for the occasion.