Memories are Made of This from Marie Wintzer

[cheryl penn]

When I first ‘met’ Marie (having never ‘met’ in body does not mean one cannot make excellent friends!) and I asked her what she did – in real life – yes, if I was a cat I’d be dead – bearing in mind what curiosity does to those creatures, she said she worked with brain cells. FAB!!! I said, make me something!!! Not initially keen on the idea, its taken a year – BUT the brain cell inspired book FINALLY arrived. Some things are just WORTH the wait. This was no exception. 

Dealing perhaps with the more conceptual nature of the work – I see Marie used stab binding to bring her pages together.  That term has always resonated with me – an interesting choice in the field of science where cutting and splicing are the trade tools. Wound/Unwound? The slashes in the desk I was taking photographs on began the DeskTop series - thanks Cherry Blossom - fortuitous indeed :-)  

There are also negatives of Marie when she was a child – that’s how memory is – a dark shade of the real, this time captured on celluloid. And its all bound together with a bandage – some memories need that, while others exist in the sunshine, perhaps burning a little more brightly than their reality.  And there's layering, sometimes images and the circles we draw are more complex than we first envisioned. 

She wrote to me and said that the process of memory is an active one and requires many genes to be switched on – then I got lost - she mentioned the atgctggtacctgaa (parts of the genetic code for some gene) (this is why I know she’s a FAB bright cookie) – that’s all I’m saying about the VERY well explained science – the rest was a bit too beyond me… ANYWAY – before I leave this part there’s a transmitter – a Microdrive that has been on a mouse’s head to record activity in the brain while the mouse performed a memory task, in the middle of the book. I think I need one. So that I can record all the things I should remember that I’ve long since forgotten, and reasons why I do - or don't do certain things. 

So, it’s a book about memories.  The circles represent the cells of the hippocampus (no – not my word – isn’t it WONDERFUL – use it today in a sentence) – it’s a part of the brain – a kind of memory chase. And its wonderful that bad memories can blur.

And this piece? I’m calling it ‘measuring up’.  I know where Marie is on the day she makes me pieces – first because she tells me, and then because she reminds me a few weeks later when it arrived in the post. I REMEMBER what we spoke about together. This was my emergency envelope – MAN! FAB emergency this one – I wish ALL emergencies looked like this. Pieces of measure, measuring sides to people she never knew existed.

Marie and I are involved in an Ether collaboration – the internet life we inhabit, the air we breathe where our lungs get clogged with data. This particular piece is on Japanese pattern paper – is that right Marie? She begins by welcoming the viewer to the Ether – we are given 7 lives on our account. (2 less than a cat???) and our journey begins along this entwined path.  

Marie included one of her photos I had requested. On unpacking the envelope, the photo moved here – a perfect joining of the alternate branches our paths can take, and how the future and our memories are made by the winding roads we travel.  A few of my favorite T S Eliot lines come to mind: from The Burial of the Dead. 

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

Winter kept us warm, covering

Earth with forgetful snow.

And now we will be warm down here, and you will be cold up there. How strange life is.

Cross Words.

This is ANOTHER FAB – cross in two ways – lying over each other and words like – I’m CROSS – leave me ALONE!! TAKE IT BACK!!! HOW COULD YOU!! I think we’ve all used and had those cross words CROSS our mouths? And then words cross – us and each other and we’re left with the wrong end of the stick. The Ether is a fine place for that occurrence!

And Cross Words are such a puzzle, aren’t they?

Marie - I think I'm the biggest collector of your work here on IUOMA - I have a special place where your work is kept - and a lot of it close within. Thank you Sweetest Pea :-) XXX

[De Villo Sloan]

I think floating cows and sweet dreams must have something to do with the ether. Who am I to disagree? French cows say "Meow"? Cat-astrophe! Udderly absurd!

[Marie Wintzer]

I'm slightly disappointed Annie Lennox and the floating cows have got nothing to do with the invention of Ether. I think we shall look a bit more into that matter.

French cows (that doesn't sound good) go "Meuh" :-)

[De Villo Sloan]

Wetter Binder? Will definitely look it up.

 

Marie, you are too much the researcher!!! Yes, all those floating cows. Who invented the ether? A moo-t point.

 

Do cows say "Moo" in French?

[cheryl penn]

Lennox - DEFINITELY NOT!! We did!!!! :-))) XXX I am hauling out my ether pages later... That quote - if I took all the turns, I would NEVER get anywhere!!!! Maybe thats why I'm not! That song we're doing - never ending, nor beginning like the circles of 'my' mind - I ONLY turn!!!! :-) X

[Marie Wintzer]

Bitter Whiner. In french we would call him an "illustre inconnu". I like that quote ;-)) another one for the collection:

see If he is wise who takes each turn:
The way to do is to be.

So Annie Lennox invented the Ether??

[cheryl penn]

"The biggest problem in the world could have been solved when it was small" - ok - I did have to google him :-)).  

"I travel the world and the seven seas

Everybody's looking for something'

Sound like they knew Ether intimately! :-) X

[Marie Wintzer]

What? You don't know Witter Bynner?? :-))

I HAD to go back to that video, OMG, I didn't remember there were that many cows in it!! It's a good one. The 80's were so much better (I sound like my grandma now).

[De Villo Sloan]

"Some of them want to use you. Some of them want to be used by you." And the guy with the sitar levitates off the desk and there's a dairy cow and Annie Lennox and "I want my MTV."

[cheryl penn]

DVS - Sweet dreams ARE made of this :-) XX 

Lisa - for sure, thank you - a long, creatively productive friendship - one of life's FABs for sure .  Some people cross ones path to uncross and intertwine:-) X

[De Villo Sloan]

You know, I'm also thinking the title might be a little unfortunate? I can't stop thinking about the Eurythmics classic: "Sweet dreams are made of these, who am I to disagree?" But that's sorta subjective I suppose.