Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt: Signs of Signs
Signs of Signs is the second exhibition of Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt (born 1932 in Wurzen) at 颁丑别谤迟尝眉诲诲别. The exhibition covers all major facets of Wolf-Rehfeldt鈥檚 production from the early 1970s until her artistic retirement in 1989, including typewritings, collages, editions, a wall installation and parts of the Mail Art Archive which contains over 20 years of correspondence that she and her husband, Robert Rehfeldt, received from artists all over the world.
The exhibition features a selection of typewritings from the early 1970s that show Wolf-Rehfeldt鈥檚 interest in semiotics and concrete poetry at the beginning of her artistic production. These works on paper were made on her Erika typewriter, and can be seen as intricate studies of sign systems, conceptual art and innovative combinations of language, symbols and visual forms.
In Introverse Arrangements (1972) and Extroverse Arrangements (1972), visual form and wordplay create the sense of various possibilities of interpretations, the title serving as a clue as to how to read the words, which are arranged like snowflakes in a single row. In Extroverse Arrangements (1972), the words can only be understood if read going outwards, and each group of eight words are delicately held together by a single letter. Here, the linguistic permutations result in strange combinations, and words often operate as signs to point the reader into unexpected directions.
The various ways in which Wolf-Rehfeldt combined words to signify meaning 鈥� and subversive alter-meanings 鈥� became statements of artistic, and even political, expression. For instance, in Entwurfskizze (Preliminary Sketch) (mid 1970s), typewritten letters fall across the page in trails, seemingly collecting at the bottom of the page in a pool of jumbled words and phrases, some of the sensible ones making out to say 鈥渄enken鈥� (think), 鈥渄ada鈥�, 鈥渂rav鈥� (well-behaved), 鈥渇eeling鈥�, 鈥渮aghaft鈥� (timid), and 鈥渇eeling uneasy鈥�. Scrawled in handwriting amongst hand drawn shapes, the legible words 鈥淏art鈥� (beard) and 鈥淓reignisse鈥� (events) seem to be at the center of these word-streams, evoking the possibility of a statement describing the paranoia, surveillance and control shaping the political milieu at the time.
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Signs of Signs is the second exhibition of Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt (born 1932 in Wurzen) at 颁丑别谤迟尝眉诲诲别. The exhibition covers all major facets of Wolf-Rehfeldt鈥檚 production from the early 1970s until her artistic retirement in 1989, including typewritings, collages, editions, a wall installation and parts of the Mail Art Archive which contains over 20 years of correspondence that she and her husband, Robert Rehfeldt, received from artists all over the world.
The exhibition features a selection of typewritings from the early 1970s that show Wolf-Rehfeldt鈥檚 interest in semiotics and concrete poetry at the beginning of her artistic production. These works on paper were made on her Erika typewriter, and can be seen as intricate studies of sign systems, conceptual art and innovative combinations of language, symbols and visual forms.
In Introverse Arrangements (1972) and Extroverse Arrangements (1972), visual form and wordplay create the sense of various possibilities of interpretations, the title serving as a clue as to how to read the words, which are arranged like snowflakes in a single row. In Extroverse Arrangements (1972), the words can only be understood if read going outwards, and each group of eight words are delicately held together by a single letter. Here, the linguistic permutations result in strange combinations, and words often operate as signs to point the reader into unexpected directions.
The various ways in which Wolf-Rehfeldt combined words to signify meaning 鈥� and subversive alter-meanings 鈥� became statements of artistic, and even political, expression. For instance, in Entwurfskizze (Preliminary Sketch) (mid 1970s), typewritten letters fall across the page in trails, seemingly collecting at the bottom of the page in a pool of jumbled words and phrases, some of the sensible ones making out to say 鈥渄enken鈥� (think), 鈥渄ada鈥�, 鈥渂rav鈥� (well-behaved), 鈥渇eeling鈥�, 鈥渮aghaft鈥� (timid), and 鈥渇eeling uneasy鈥�. Scrawled in handwriting amongst hand drawn shapes, the legible words 鈥淏art鈥� (beard) and 鈥淓reignisse鈥� (events) seem to be at the center of these word-streams, evoking the possibility of a statement describing the paranoia, surveillance and control shaping the political milieu at the time.
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