The 5th Commandment | 2000-01 | performance/installation | handmade embroidery on a 30m-fabric-towel | Berlin & Festival of Visions, Hongkong | ©Ralf Grömminger
words – embroidered on a thirty meter long towel
with cross stitch, star stitch, flat stitch the death banished into the fabric
time – two to three hours per word
ways to die – an examination of german language for its lethal vocabulary
verbs in active and passive form describing the process of killing and dying
a litany of manner of death from ‘abkratzen to zu tode kommen’ on textile ground
embroidery – manual work that creates decorative images stitch by stitch,
a process that cannot be accelerated, a meditative activity
the texture is injured thereby
the fabric bears scars
thread, scissors, needle – tools of the Moirs,
the three greek goddesses of fate
Klotho spins the thread
Lachesis winds it up
Atropos cuts it
washing hands – purification process
and ritual for the claim of innocence