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]

Marie, who is Witter Bynner? If you move the letters around a little the name is: Bitter Whiner. Not that we have any bitter whiners around here.

[cheryl penn]

Bifidus - ABSOLUTLEY!! My status - Thankyou Ruud and IUOMA :-) Theresa - I posted you three things yesterday - including the returned envelope - I'm hoping the address is in memory of its way home - otherwise I'm using one of Marie's Mice's microsdrives to get it to you! Marie - what a wonderful quote :-) XXX

[Marie Wintzer]

I am a miser of my memories of you
And will not spend them.
~Witter Bynner

[Bifidus Jones]

kudos to everyone here for obvious reasons but also a big round of applause to IUOMA which allows us to connect with the kind of people who appreciate creativity. I can't begin to tell you how many people i meet every day and there's no light on because no one's home. Here at IUOMA everyone's awake, fireworks are going off and no one's yawning.

[cheryl penn]

Thanks DVS - I am the main collector in the world of Marie Wintzers work. I am REALLY grateful to get her work - its ALWAYS thought provoking and based on stimulating dialogue. Jeepers, we all go back a long way - as Marie reminded me we're celebrating a year here - interesting times  :-) XX

[De Villo Sloan]

Unfortunately, it is hard to know where to start - so much amazing work in this blog (TY CP-SA). I do especially like Marie's take on the wound and bandage theme. There's so much more: The meditation on memory, the connection to science - these should fill a dozen blogs.

 

Perhaps the important question here is: Can mice be trained to make mail-art? CB, I now have no doubt you did have some role with the monkeys. The TOXIS Adventure is clearly not done yet!

[Marie Wintzer]

Pfiuuuu I don't even know where to start! Such an amazing blog, Cheryl!! It makes me so happy.

The memory book, well, you said everything! That idea took one year to mature, and then from one second to the other I knew what I wanted to do with those mice cells. It was also inspired by your Wounds, and by Dw's bandage piece. I love your pictures on the DeskTop, it works really well! And the blurry one!

"measuring sides to people she never knew existed", brilliant!! (if you check on the other side of the small papers with measuring units there is a scrambled poem, maybe you'll recognize it) :-)) 

The Ether chapter is on sewing pattern, yes. The ever winding road, the ever so present Camelot... 

And glad you liked Cross Words, we were also talking about it a long time ago, and it finally materialized. Oh, you can take it out of the plastic sheet, it was for protective purposes.

Oooh my, this has got to be my favorite blog of yours, I don't even know how to thank you.....