Kafka's Great Wall
Last Train to Kafka, 2012. Porcelain, wood, mortar. 40x40cm
Two porcelain works inspired by Kafka's The Great Wall (Beim Bau der Chinesischen Mauer, 1917/30). Left: Last Train to Kafka. Hundreds of words chosen from The Great Wall, pressed into porcelain, cut up and fired; porcelain freight cars and a locomotive, mortar, and a decorative wooden window frame serve as material for this piece.
Kafka's Great Wall, 2012. Porcelain, wood. 28x32cm
In Kafka's Great Wall I chose words lifted from Kafka's story, impressed them into porcelain clay, glazed and fired them. Not much bigger than mosaic tesserae, the porcelain words in the image at the left have been rearranged into a text in which the writer sees himself as a mason, contributing with his work to the building of the Tower of Babel and the Great Wall. The act of writing is a form of resistance: The Wall, and not the presence and views of the High Command — the Wall is China's great achievement.
A transcription of the German brickwork can be found below, along with an English translation.
English translation To be a mason is to search for signs and significant marks, not guidance from others, or what is worse, binding rules and regulations. The orders of the High Command, although not without a basis in human reason, are in fact contradictory side streets, borders that since the dawn of history have driven us so crazy that we do not fight; nevertheless I must rattle the chains. At the time, the confusion of writing was the principal question behind my research, and I didn't go chasing after that question just because of the times when I was compelled to explain my view and thoughts. If the book had not written itself I would surely be dead. The book, or so I choose to believe, is more powerful and more human than the High Command, comprehensible and without deception. May that be our prayer, that human reason become the foundation, calm and immortal, not simply useless. The building of the Tower is itself a form of resistance; clarity and the sun are the Tower of Babel, and that is why I continue to think about it. My writings, thoughts and considerations are one with the building of the Wall and the Tower. For that reason alone one desires not to fail, and were the Wall to collapse, we who built it would have to be shot. But what would be the point of killing hundreds of thousands? The Wall, and not the presence and views of the High Command — the Wall is China’s great achievement.