Make Art Not War

Since this article is about an artist from the United States of America, I would like to try and write in English. This is dedicated to all my English speaking and writing friends and followers and especially to my dear aunt Pat in British Columbia, Canada.

I think it’s very important to make art that you have to wait for. … you have to wait and you have to wonder what happens next.

-George Rickey, in his studio at East Chatham, New York (from: The George Rickey Foundation, georgerickey.org)

In the beginning there were just three rotary squares (Drei rotierende Quadrate in German) … and nowadays, Münster loves not just the Rickey sculpture at Engelenschanze but all of the works that stayed there from the once-in-a-decade-exhibition since 1977. But …

Zwei Nomen im Nominativ und lauter Skulpturen in Münster

Ein sehr geschätztes Familienmitglied ist fest davon überzeugt, dass da ein Fehler vorliegen müsse: zwei Nomen im Nominativ direkt nebeneinander, das gehe doch nicht, dafür gibt es doch Komposita, und die werden zusammengeschrieben im Deutschen!

Mutters Kaffee – das gehe, dabei handele es sich schließlich um eine Genitivkonstruktion (wessen Kaffee? Mutters). Aber Baum Scheibe, Zeitung Leserin, Skulptur Projekte… niemals! Und überhaupt: Solche Fantasiekonstruktionen seien eine fürchterliche Unterstützung des Einfachst-Deutsches, das weder den Dativ noch den Genitiv und schon gar nicht Kompositaregeln kennt – ja, dieser Einblick in eine typische Diskussion einer europäischen Lehrerfamilie eröffnet ganz neue Sichtweisen auf die:

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The Art Of Tooting – a short journey into symbolism and numbers…

Every night (except tuesday) the Tuermerin von Muenster keeps guard from St. Lambert’s church.
From 8:45pm until 12:15am she stands watching on top of the neo-gothic tower as the city falls asleep.
She blows a huge horn every half hour from 9pm til midnight – long signals signify „everything’s alright, no fires a-burning, no foes at the imaginary gates“; short stopped signals mean „watch out! something strange and foul is going on within the inner city!“…

The signals are just like the bells of the churches (there are over 80 nearby churches from where I blog!) – at 9 o’clock, the Tooting goes:

„tooooot, tooooot, tooooot (pause) tooooot, tooooot, tooooot (pause) tooooot, tooooot, tooooot“.

As one can see clearly by this example, we have (3 x 3) signals and there are pauses. Why?
Let’s see how the Tooting will sound at 10pm.

„tooooot, tooooot, tooooot (pause ) tooooot, tooooot, tooooot (pause) tooooot, tooooot, tooooot, tooooot“

Okay, here we have (2 x 3) PLUS (1 x 4) „tooooot“. Let’s keep that in mind and move over to 11pm.
At 11pm the Tooting sounds like this:

„tooooot, tooooot, tooooot (pause) tooooot, tooooot, tooooot (pause) tooooot, tooooot, tooooot (pause) tooooot, tooooot“

Got it? (3 x 3) PLUS (1 x 2) – and what about 12pm?

You figured that one out already, didn’t you? It’s like

„tooooot, tooooot, tooooot (pause) tooooot, tooooot, tooooot (pause) tooooot, tooooot, tooooot (pause) tooooot, tooooot, tooooot“

(4 x 3) !

This is mathematics, this is mystery, this is cool !!!

The main number of Tootings is the „3“ – just think of the Holy Trinity and the theological virtues (Faith, Hope, Love)…!

The „2“ stands for Duality, Finitude, Contrariness (see Gen 1,1 in the Holy Bible – it starts with the second letter B – Bereschith; the relation between Egypt and The Land of Canaan… just look it up on your favourite SearchEngine!)…

And the meaning of the „4“: e.g. the fourth letter of the Hebrews is „Daleth“, the „door“ to the world or to heaven; the four original sins (The Fall of Man, Fratricide, The Flood, The Tower of Babel)…

Okay folks, and now something very mundane: One has to breathe whilst blowing the horn! 2 Tootings are easy, 3 ooookay, 4 dang! any longer and the Tuermerin might feel somewhat giddy 😀

Oh – and before I forget about the „half hour“-fact:
Every half hour the church bells go „DONG DONG“ – (2 x DONG) – because two quarters of the full hour have just elapsed… and the Tooting embraces that point with „toooot, toooot“.

Any more questions? No? Come on over some time and hear the Tooting going on at the foot of St. Lambert’s church in the center of the city of Muenster! You’ll love it just like I do! And if you drop me a line that you’re going to visit my town – I’m gonna toooooot even more beautiful and harmonious! Word!