ERIC EHRNSCHWENDER
selected works

It’s October.

I'm going to give a presentation in a few days, and I am struggling to write about my work in a way that makes any sense. This is nothing new; I write slowly: I’m not a good typist, my handwriting is no good, and I can’t think fast enough to speak with any great fluidity. I also like to think that I am not a bad writer- all of that slowness lends to a depth that rapidity often lacks.

I am trying to convey something about associative fields- looking more at affect and peripheral understanding than that cerebral sort of conceptualism that is so popular. And I thought- why am I trying to be concise and logical about something that defies that? How can you write to explain something that you can’t even quite name? And, if I could write it, and it would make sense, is it even worth the effort?

So I made a numbered list of things that are, at best, tangent to my practice; rules, hopes, ideas. Some are simply incidental quotes or references that I like, others are anecdotes. Some are taken from previous (or future?) artist statements. Some are taken from love letters that I never sent. Some are titles from old work. Others are not even written by me. There’s some science stuff in there, too. The hope is that I can draw a rough shape around the sorts of things that are important to me. So don’t really worry about understanding it.

Just try to get a feel for it.

1. Water seeks its lowest point and takes the shape of its container.
2. I am a swarm of bees.
   (consider identity as an archipelago, not a supercontinent.)
3. The Game of Deliberate Knowledge:
   make a sentence of something you don't like about yourself.
   change the pronoun from 'I' to 'he' or 'she' or you.’
   say this new sentence quietly, with a furrowed brow.
4. Each morning, you are only very similar to the person you were yesterday,
   never the same.
5. Thermodynamics, second law.
6. Diaristic v. Diarrhistic.
7. I will begin to conclude my introduction of my final opening remark.

1. Remember it and it will be true.
2. The blank page should not cause trepidation,
   after all,
   but rather a reconsideration of what could be.
3. Going back to a simpler time is not a step backward.
   -Yvonne Chovinard
4. Irregularity of basement stairs-
   sweat on jar, ice water-
   heat of sun held in skin-
   scent of burning lint, broken dryer-
   topography of damp blanket, veins-
   rhythm of bare brick, crumbling mortar-
   aroma of rotting wood, acrylic paint.
5. each memory: guy wire holding tower tall, ready for broadcast-
   each memory: mouthful of water in hull, boat riding low-
   each memory: point in guiding constellation, still no map-
   each memory: smoldering board-
   each memory: sound foundation-
6. I would always start the map from the same point:
   where the creek and the fenceline intersected, a bit to the north.
   Each map was different.
7. So, take heart, All,
   because even the most mundane of days
   has a thing or two that has never been seen before.
8. Find the time to celebrate those small things-
   be they tasks (washing the dishes, putting on shoes, etc.)
   or things (straw wrappers, bent staples, etc.)
   or feelings (anticipation, frustration, etc.)
9. It doesn’t matter.
   -Guy de Cointet

1. If you are born to be hanged, you’ll never drown.
2. The city on the postcard and the city at hand have nothing in common but for the coincidence of having the same name.
   -Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
3. A fronte praecipitium; a tergo lupi.
4. Here is the world.
   Beautiful and terrible things will happen.
   Don’t be afraid.
   -Frederick Buechner
5. I keep having dreams that involve loss of limbs.
6. I also dream of being made of burnt sand and living in a lighthouse.
7. The world is big, that’s why we are standing still.
   -a six year old named Lu
8. Ain’t no hell deep enough to keep heaven out.
   -Alden Bell, The Reapers are the Angels
9. There are places everywhere.
10. There is no adventure without misadventure.
11. We must travel in the direction of our fear.
12. Think of all the worse luck that your bad luck has saved you from.
    -Cormac McCarthy
13. The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.
    -Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
14. Hope over logic

1. We are our children’s children.
2. I am writing this as if I were a dead man from a different time and place.
3. Self as strangers’ relatives?
4. Normalcy is relative.
5. Most of us have to be transplanted, like a tree, before we blossom.
   -Louise Nevelson
6. Consciousness as parasite.
7. Death to honeysuckle.
8. Cannibalism leads to dialogue
9. I saw a wolf’s head on the side of the road.
   And I wondered where the rest of the wolf might be.
   And it reminded me of a simpler time: when my brother and I were young.
   We would pick fights with local boys- insult them and their families usually.
   But, beneath that bravado, we weren’t very tough.
   After being beaten up a few times we ceased our unsociable behaviour, but the aura remained.
   Bold beyond our means, courageous lunatics; frightening and useless.

1. Considering that the world is a simulation, mistrust that which appears constant.
2. The real is produced of miniaturised parts.
3. Give ample resources for world building in a concise package.
4. The tools that I have are my experience and my insight
5. A pillar is pen,
   a wheel is a dinner plate,
   a leg is a branch,
   a hand is a magnet.
6. ∆T is inconstant.
7. Construction is more important than finish.
8. Form follows fiction.
9. Whenever I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror after peeing, I look like I just spent about four days in a constant state of either wakefulness or sleep.
10. I am skeptical of good fortune.
11. The drum of a washing machine is a cannon is a fire pit is a strainer is an exclusion of those largest things is a commitment to the small;
    a window is a record of direction is a prediction of the future is the admission of its existence;
    a bowl is a cantaloupe is unnamed desire is heartbreaking regret.

1. the evidence suggests
   that we aren’t as sneaky as we think;
   aren’t the fortresses we’ve dreamt.
2. Sulking, slathering-
   snatching any blue from what sky has failed to flee,
   scattering those gnawed clean bones where once hale limbs reached.
   Still cold in a blanketed world.
   taking everything; requiring more, and still,
   the sun might open.
3. (and if it does-
   it could thaw those long frozen veins,
   and they could trickle to those tributaries-
   nourishing, in turn, rivers-
   swelling eventually-
   and maybe,
   if the sun does open,
   that river will feed the source,
   and even if my my heart warms by only a tenth of a degree,
   it will have been worth enduring.)
4. The mouse cannot love the cat who loves mice.
5. There comes that phase in life when, tired of losing,
   you decide to stop losing,
   then continue losing.
   -George Saunders
6. the game of aromatic priorities
   what sorts of things or people do you rely on?
   imagine a smell that would make you reconsider.
   please invent and record the name of this smell.
7. Weakness as a universal bond;
   the strong fibre of shared existence.
8. But I am not cat:
   I will chase mice without gain, and I will rarely land on my feet when thrown into the air.
9. Long story short,
   it was not until some hours later that I came to really appreciate her company,
   by which time she was long gone;
   I didn’t get her number.
   I didn’t get her name.
   I don’t even know what color her eyes are.
   but I am pretty sure that we could have been friends.
10. We used to be invulnerable.
    Times has changed, I guess.
11. We’ll sharpen our teeth
    We won’t wear shoes-
    And with knives outdrawn,
    We’ll lay down to snooze,
    ‘Cause we’re lions and wolves
    In a world filled with sheep
    So fear nothing, darling,
    As we drift off to sleep
    The Frightener’s Lullaby

1. Nobody really wants to be friends with someone who has onions for hands, either.
2. Disagreeability is necessary for progress, but maybe not for making friends.
3. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you...
   ... As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
   -Nelson Mandela
4. You are as miserable as you are selfish.
5. The grumpier you are, the more assholes you meet.
6. Bitch bitch bitch-
   all I do is complain,
   and nobody wants to listen to that.

1. Lies are generally tastier; we love them. The nature of lies is to please.
   Truth has no concern for anyone’s comfort.
   -Katherine Dunn, Geek Love
2. Reject tomorrow. Today’s all we have.
3. Honesty is the most subversive of all disguises.
   T-Bone Burnett, A True False Identity
4. How forcible are right words!
   Job 6:25
5. My favorite lies are the ones that we all know aren’t true, but believe anyway.
6. Straight ticket voting rarely happens on the local level.
7. I know what you are promising...
   I just want to know what you are promising against-
   so when you break your promise
   I know what else gets broken.
8. (You know, like a pinky swear.)

1. Expectation is the root of disappointment.
2. It ain’t what you like that makes you fat.
   It’s what you eat.
3. The body is only a machine,
   treat it well,
   but know that it will eventually fail.
4. Don’t let the bastards grind you down.
5. Ineptitude, vulnerability and failure
   paired with sincerity, authenticity, and empathy.
6. (and really, there is always, always, always hope.)
7. Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.
   -Gustave Flaubert
8. the game of self ostracization
   see how much air you can fit in your mouth. imagine you always feel like this.
   try to do this without anyone seeing you.
9. I keep what little violence I have left entirely for myself.
10. I sometimes think that shame,
    mere awkward, senseless shame,
    does as much towards preventing good acts and straightforward happiness as any of our vices can do.
    -C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed
11. If we want to be surprising, we can’t be too much serious.
    -Giulio Cappellini
12. I hope I never get used to things.
13. You’re on Earth. There’s no cure for that.
    -Samuel Beckett

1. We are like sailors who on the open sea must reconstruct their ship but are never able to start afresh from the bottom. Where a beam is taken away a new one must at once be put there, and for this the rest of the ship is used as support. In this way, by using the old beams and driftwood the ship can be shaped entirely anew, but only by gradual reconstruction.
   -Otto Neurath
3. It is impossible to return home.