Application for a research stipend for fine arts, April 2021

Remove and disappear are terms which leave nothing after their appearance, or at least there would be less than before. They describe related movements/gestures.

Recently I noticed different registers of disappearing and removing. The possible disappearance of original motives in Photoshop. The short disappearance of Josef Strau during a Zoom talk in Düsseldorf. The disappearance of a male model into grey after modelling t-shirts with Lacan texts online. The disappearance of the subject in a love relationship. Or, the subject‘s darkness (Subjektfinsternis) consists in the disappearance of the subject. The sudden disappearance (after a sudden appearance) of bubble tea joints. Or could you have disappeared in them at a certain point?

The removing/taking over of decisions by way of algorithms. Removing/Not showing something of oneself to not be recognised. Also unconscious use of male privileges takes something away from women. If you have removed everything, is there nothing more in the way?

Disappearing may be more passive than removing. When does something/someone disappear on purpose? Why? And does that require a door? Are you always conscious of removing/taking away something from someone? Where does disappearing begin? When does removing/taking away end? What's missing? Both terms move at the margins.

Photography describes a relation between light and delay. Which both don‘t make a good or tangible partner. It can be read as a figure of negativity or a medium for Aufhebung. I'm not there. I've no idea how you are. Remove and disappear and their relation to miss/loss or to desire/devour. Or: What do you want?

By way of writing and photography, I want to think about both of these terms and encircle them descriptively.


Application for a research stipend for fine arts, April 2021

And chapter 12a of Und sie fällt uns dauernd runter / This one's about love, 2021
And text in Bewerbung für ein Recherchestipendium für bildende Kunst, April 2021, 2021
for the exhibition Eyes hold things differently, Layr Coburgbastei, Vienna, 2021