It all starts with a line.
This line is set in motion and then isolated – becoming a miniature of movement in water. On the flat surface of the sea the wind creates a play of directions, reflecting colours from the surroundings. The depicted wind ensures that it does not remain two-dimensional, but that the line also moves forwards and backwards.
The approach is invariably a short line that breaks down into fragments of movement. Although the process is similar for each Water Poem, each time a surprising new effect or a new form or a new interplay of lines emerges.
The music elaborates on the idea of a fragmented line. Short gestures are chosen here for their sound aesthetics and direct expressiveness. Initially, all fragments can be heard on their own. Then the fragments are combined with themselves, often in mirrored form or in canon. After that, the different fragments also engage in a musical conversation with each other. In this way, the music gains more and more depth and layering – reflecting the three-dimensional quality of the paper sculptures.
Water Poems is one of our larger projects. Like many of our projects, we are working on it over a longer period, taking the time to deepen and to explore. It is exciting to allow thoughts to mature and to probe and research in this way, moving from paper sculptures to sound and back again. The Water Poems ’library’ currently holds 80 works.