Current Impression
2016, Print on paper, type metal
Paper: 21x14.8(each)
Type metal: dimensions variable
Unique
Basel is a city of banks. Banks are also along the River Rhine, where stands their paper mill. People used to do all the operations from paper making to printing, binding and publishing, and made use of water transport to ship their books. Here, the current of knowledge is not a metaphor. Likewise, the banks that abound in the city deal with currency. Basel, known as a bastion of financial capitalism, always had the current of the Rhine at its feet.
In the paper mill, which is now a printing museum, I sought to take this impression of my own and turn it into a solid object. In this museum the “latest” technology on display was a linotype machine, which turns a line of letters entered on a typewriter into a single unit of cast metal. “Current Impression” – was typed in its multiple variants, and the pieces of metal that came out were still burning hot.