File 1214/87, 2018
When The Power Has Gone ( 2018/2024)
https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/11967066
"You had to live - did live, from habit that became instinct - in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized."
George Orwell, 1984
In 1997, I applied to find out whether there were secret files held on me.
Six months later, I received a reply: file 1214/87 existed.
The further delay before I could read the file in Berlin gave me time to imagine what it might contain and to wonder who had betrayed me. Family members? Close friends? Colleagues at work?
The file contained meticulous copies of letters exchanged with friends and publishers, including correspondence through which teaching materials were sent from the West. It included the fronts and backs of envelopes and index cards documenting information gathered through the monitoring of my mail.
I found it difficult to comprehend the extent of the surveillance and the amount of work devoted to collecting, reviewing and recording such ordinary correspondence. The final report recommended my dismissal from my teaching position on the grounds that I was “unsuitable”.
We were transparent beings.
Some pages had already been censored by the authority responsible for managing the Stasi archive. Black rectangles concealed names and other information in order to protect identities. The handwritten pagination made by the Stasi had been replaced with new numbering and stamps by the archivist.
Reading the deeply personal letters again was emotional. At a time when we did not have telephones, letters were an important form of dialogue between friends. I did not want to expose this private correspondence or make the identities of the people involved visible again. I needed to find a way of working with the file while protecting what it contained.
I created the images by layering, obscuring and selectively erasing parts of the documents.
In the Overlays, letters, envelopes, addresses and index cards are superimposed to create dense compositions in which information becomes pattern, form and movement.
In the Reductions, names and sensitive passages are removed according to the structure of each page. The individual document is reduced to its essential shapes, leaving only traces of its original content. Some of these images recall the simplicity of chalk drawings on a blackboard, returning the material unexpectedly to the classroom.
The work became an encounter with an archive that had been created without my consent and that contained information about other people as well as myself. By reworking the file, I introduced another layer of selection and protection. I could preserve the structure and material presence of the documents without making everything they contained visible.
The original file remains at the centre of the work, but its contents have been transformed. What was once evidence becomes image. What was private becomes partially concealed. What was recorded by the state is subjected to a different kind of looking and handling.
Titles for the Overlays come from Stasi file 1214/87, using official abbreviations and code words. The redacted pieces are titled after page numbers assigned by the agency managing the Stasi archive.
6 Overlays, 80 × 60 cm At least 12 Reductions, 60 × 40 cm
https://www.blurb.co.uk/b/11967066
"You had to live - did live, from habit that became instinct - in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every moment scrutinized."
George Orwell, 1984
In 1997, I applied to find out whether there were secret files held on me.
Six months later, I received a reply: file 1214/87 existed.
The further delay before I could read the file in Berlin gave me time to imagine what it might contain and to wonder who had betrayed me. Family members? Close friends? Colleagues at work?
The file contained meticulous copies of letters exchanged with friends and publishers, including correspondence through which teaching materials were sent from the West. It included the fronts and backs of envelopes and index cards documenting information gathered through the monitoring of my mail.
I found it difficult to comprehend the extent of the surveillance and the amount of work devoted to collecting, reviewing and recording such ordinary correspondence. The final report recommended my dismissal from my teaching position on the grounds that I was “unsuitable”.
We were transparent beings.
Some pages had already been censored by the authority responsible for managing the Stasi archive. Black rectangles concealed names and other information in order to protect identities. The handwritten pagination made by the Stasi had been replaced with new numbering and stamps by the archivist.
Reading the deeply personal letters again was emotional. At a time when we did not have telephones, letters were an important form of dialogue between friends. I did not want to expose this private correspondence or make the identities of the people involved visible again. I needed to find a way of working with the file while protecting what it contained.
I created the images by layering, obscuring and selectively erasing parts of the documents.
In the Overlays, letters, envelopes, addresses and index cards are superimposed to create dense compositions in which information becomes pattern, form and movement.
In the Reductions, names and sensitive passages are removed according to the structure of each page. The individual document is reduced to its essential shapes, leaving only traces of its original content. Some of these images recall the simplicity of chalk drawings on a blackboard, returning the material unexpectedly to the classroom.
The work became an encounter with an archive that had been created without my consent and that contained information about other people as well as myself. By reworking the file, I introduced another layer of selection and protection. I could preserve the structure and material presence of the documents without making everything they contained visible.
The original file remains at the centre of the work, but its contents have been transformed. What was once evidence becomes image. What was private becomes partially concealed. What was recorded by the state is subjected to a different kind of looking and handling.
Titles for the Overlays come from Stasi file 1214/87, using official abbreviations and code words. The redacted pieces are titled after page numbers assigned by the agency managing the Stasi archive.
6 Overlays, 80 × 60 cm At least 12 Reductions, 60 × 40 cm
