Absences is a short story in form of a dialogue between a woman and a police officer. The protagonist reports strange disappearances from her apartment: “Mostly small things of everyday life that might have been gone for a long time or maybe vanished just before I noticed they are missing. For most of them I couldn’t say when I last saw them.” – In the end she has to realize that much more is missing.
A surprising story, funny in a bittersweet way, about estrangement in marriage, about how the comfort of daily routines can turn huge parts of a life into something ephemeral. In spirit with the ephemeral nature of the objects in the story, each book is made from scraps and materials made to look like leftover bits.
To stress the simplicity and intimacy present within the story, the text is hand written onto gesso on tinted paper. From the gesso, elements mentioned in the story “are missing” (stencilled out). The paper is then folded up in an accordion style. The resulting book has the format of a postcard when closed (15.5cm x 11cm x 0.5cm); fully extended it has a length of 65 cm.
First finished in May 2015, copies are numbered and signed.
Price £46 (buy it from me on Etsy, at Vamp and Tramp, at Abecedarian Gallery, or contact me)
