Hermes Insensed  
 

2000-2001
60 glass-framed photos, including 15 handwritten English texts (Tanya Ury),
15 handwritten German texts (translation: Alix Brand & Tanya Ury)

Edition of seven: No.1 - No. 60: 42 x 63 cm, No. 61: 50 x 75 cm (mounted and sealed under plexiglass)
(Edition of seven: No.1 - No. 60: 84 x 126 cm, No.61: 100 x 150 cm)

Catalogue, Korridor Verlag 2001 (D) ISBN 3-9802189-4-5

An audio CD for a tape-slide installation version of Hermes Insensed (2 x 80 slides) was produced in 2003: sound technician Lale Konuk.

In several of her works Tanya Ury has adopted the name of Hermè or Herme (her & me):

Hermeneurotic 1984- (collection of literary texts)
Hermes Insensed 2000-2001 (photo series with 15 short stories)
Building Bridges 2001 (short story)
Between the Lines or The Three Rs 2001 (short story)
Holding the Baby 2002 (2 photographs and short story)
Stick Insect 2003 (short story)
Getta Life 2003 (short story)
Night and Day 2003 (short story)
Hermesignet 2005 (gold ring with inscription)
Herme 2010 (digitally processed 1950’s fashion cover)
herlookingovermeshoulder 2011 (digitally processed 1940’s advertisement)
 

Photographs No. 1-60 may be divided into groups of 4. Each of these 15 subjects consists of two colour photographs and two corresponding photos of hand-written letters. 28 people from nearly a dozen countries were photographed in Zurich, Berlin, Stuttgart and Cologne. The depicted theme is an old-world ritual of formal intimacy: the hand-kiss. Hermes Insensed is nostalgia in a digital age. Interspersed with nursery rhymes and verses by the artist, the one-sided discourse reads on different levels: the socio-political, the private and personal. One pseudonym 'Her/me', addresses another 'Jacob' (or 'Jack'); but these titles, are they stereotypes, mythical figures, or just nicknames of regular people? Are the photos and texts documentary or fiction? The line isn't clear but between the lines, is clearly a utopian longing for peace, an appeal for grace.

Tanya Ury
 
more Hungarian translation Kristóf Szabó