The Oceanic Feeling

Beatrix Zobl

Performance and Paper, Writing with Light, Prints or Vera Icon, Control and Coincidence, A Sign of Life or Memento mori. The Face of the World: The Hot-Cold Now

In this piece, which explores photo contact methods, my tools are the human body, bones, fish skeletons, plastic, and more. The title of the series is drawn from Sigmund Freud’s treatise on cultural theory, Civilization and Its Discontents.[1].

The photographic printing (contact) method used is based on the light sensitivity of iron compounds, which turn blue in the process. Depending on the resulting “photo-graphic”, one can debate whether the respective image is a print, trace, or shadow.[2]. Wobei sich je nach Ergebnis der „Foto-Grafik“^[3] darüber philosophieren lässt, ob es sich bei dem jeweiligen Bild um einen Abdruck, eine Spur oder einen Schatten handelt.

A key construction material in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, iron is the quintessence of durability, our desire for eternal existence, irrevocable stability, and strength—an iron-clad social concept of the good and stable life. Both an economic and aesthetic raw material, the history of iron is inextricably linked to political and social history, gender roles, and the impending climate catastrophe. The durability of iron enters into a dialogue through this image creation process that cannot be fully controlled. The fragility and transience of the human body connect with the material: Control and loss of control, intention and coincidence or the desire for such, and also enduring frustration and vulnerability, are all elements and aspects of this series.

Als ökonomisches und ästhetisches Material ist die Geschichte des Eisens untrennbar mit der politischen und sozialen Geschichte, dem Rollen-Selbstverständnis der Geschlechter, sowie der sich anbahnenden Klimakatastrophe verbunden.

Die scheinbare Unvergänglichkeit steht im Dialog mit dem Bildwerdungsprozess, der nicht vollständig kontrollierbar ist. Denn erst beim Auswaschen wird das Bild fixiert –besser– wird es Teil des Papiers, das sich bei der Wässerung neu zusammensetzt.

The durability of iron enters into a dialogue through this image creation process that cannot be fully controlled. The fragility and transience of the human body connect with the material: Control and loss of control, intention and coincidence or the desire for such, and also enduring frustration and vulnerability, are all elements and aspects of this series. It is marked most of all by the desire to experiment and the experiences that arise as a result.

[1] The expression came about through an exchange of letters with Romain Rolland about “religion as an illusion”, with the latter using the term to designate the source itself—i.e., the fundamental desire to embrace limitlessness while at the same time staying connected to the outside world “even though one rejects all beliefs and all illusions.” Freud could not do much with the idea, and the term was never fully elucidated. In my project, “the oceanic feeling” refers not only to the ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, but to the fundamental question of the relationship between life and death. I further relate the metaphor to the “I” that remains separate from the outside world, and to the very opposite: the longing of the “I” to find connection with its environment.

[2] Cyanotype: from ancient Greek “κυανός/kyanos”; dark blue/cyan and “τύπος/typos”: print.

[3] Fox Talbot used the term “Photogenic Drawings” for calotype, a related process based on silver nitrate.