EVERYTHING! – Photo tanbun sequence

Brigitte ten Brink
EVERYTHING!
review

I have a small, handy booklet in front of me, with a spiral binding in landscape format, 14,8 by 10,5 cm, 52 pages thick, which fits well in a handbag or a slightly larger jacket pocket, e.g. B. to shorten waiting times. You could also call it a "chapbook", a slip-in booklet that can easily be taken anywhere. The cover features a photo of a leaf on a darker shade of pink background and the title EVERYTHING! sounds promising.

It was created on the occasion of the exhibition "100 Years Jawlensky in Wiesbaden", which Gabriele Hartmann and Rita Rosen visited together. They recorded their impressions in tanbun form. A tanbun consists of a very short and concise prose section, followed by a haiku. Gabriele Hartmann provided each tanbun with a photo that forms a subtle connection with the text. These are not just photos of the exhibits. In the appendix, the reader will find a short biography of Alexej von Jawlensky, a brief description of the terms "Tanbun" and "sequence", a table of contents, brief information on the two authors and a short afterword on the creation of the booklet: a homage to the artist's life's work, the each personal retrospective of an impressive exhibition packaged and connected in the "style of Japanese chain poetry" (p. 52).

Gabriele Hartmann starts with the tanbun "Gold" in several respects: it is the first tanbun in the booklet and it deals with both the author's arrival in Wiesbaden on a stormy autumn day and the beginning of Jawlensky's stay there and it moves in impressive summary.

GOLD

October 21. One of those autumn towers is tearing the colorful leaves out of my sky. "They're already expecting me in Wiesbaden." *

at the end
that day I will
be richer

GH (* Jawlensky to Karl Obersteg, May 31, 1921) (p. 5)

The booklet is then rounded off by the last tanbun, written by Rita Rosen.

PATHS

In between - again and again - pleasant landscape pictures. "The Great Way in the Evening" leads through twilight green to the black gate - locked.

time change –
in the early dark
the way home

RR (p. 42)

The two authors each have their own view of the works and their individual feelings during the visit to the exhibition. In the tanbun, this is expressed in the very personal style of the respective author. With Rita Rosen z. For example, there is always a direct connection between the exhibit she is looking at and the concrete current feeling or experience. Her tanbun in the prose text each deal with one of the exhibits and the associated haiku her personal momentary experience.

PAIN

With the online tickets in the room. Stand next to each other. Golden-brown streaks - the meditator's forehead wrinkles. "My sick hands" he called the picture.

ich
crumple
the flyer

RR (p. 6)

or

FACE

the companion. Haughty, snooty, highly talented. colorful. "Color is emotion", determined the W.
a crowd in front of the picture –

in my back
Elbow

RR (p. 34)

Gabriele Hartmann, on the other hand, always makes the "trappings" an issue.

BLUE

Everyday objects - but this color! Fascinated, I circle the stele, stretch out a hand...
a throat clearing

calls me to reason - I seek
the wide

GH (p. 21)

or

DEDICATION

A new room. Under glass the list of sponsors. A gentleman in the cut approaches, fiddles with the audio guide, comes

even closer...
then touch me
sandalwood

GH (p. 29)

By reading, the reader gets an impression of the presentation and the work of Jawlensky. This impression is reinforced by the photographs, which show not only excerpts from the exhibits but also visual extensions of the textual content.

An all-round successful little work that, after reading it, makes you want to visit this exhibition to get your own perspective.