by Rolf Simon-Weidner

I am interested in the imprint, the marking and carving. The expression is the answer: My hand is the innermost being that is the utmost of the inside (the inner being). I am convinced that our thinking (intellect) has developed not only by way of seeing and speaking, but that the hand itself has had an influence on the development of our brain: grasping and acting!

I have always been very pleased with the term "craft" (... work done by hand...)! Our cultural objects are all being put before our eyes by hand. ..."handmade-work" is always being required. Work does need the hand.

But there is a paradox: everywhere in our visible world the hand has vanished, disappeared. Traces of work are being erased. The objects are being dehumanized. Their surfaces show neither traces nor processes of human intervention. On the contrary. The hand erases any trace of the work process. So the hand wipes out the marks of the hand - hand against hand! -

My own experience too, for example concerning the instalment of an exhibition, manifests this strategy to me: while putting things on show one is busy cleaning up, white-washing and creating an even surface. Three days of hard work - and then, at the opening night everything is expected to look totally easygo, taken for granted. Only those with respective experience see and know: "Gee, they must have slogged away!"

Man gets less and less visible, detectable in the results of his work, in his work, in his handmade work.

Today`s work eliminates work(ing).

Man removes himself out of his objects. In my work I attempt the opposite: the acting hand shall leave evident "handmade-work", the workprocess and effort shall remain visible.

Rolf Simon-Weidner

(His text was translated by Margrit Steffen)