Dear Mr/Ms curator,
Please find enclosed in this box a Cuban cigar. These are entirely for your pleasure.
Also enclosed you will find Amanda. She consists of three distinct masses. We list these below, with their corresponding instruction for the display.
- Information legend, mounted on a low podium
- A bundle of bubble-wrap, objects and string.
- Everything else whether fixed or loose, belongs to Amanda’s home.
Please do your very best to make Amanda feel at home. We feel certain that she’d be pleased to have her candle lit and her coffee replenished regularly during her exhibition. Any other ways you can think of taking care of her and making her feel comfortable and cosy would be deeply appreciated. We know she’s been feeling in need of new reading material and she has a sweet tooth.
Among Amanda’s home items you will also find a XXX, which contains a recording of Amanda’s song. Here is how the words go:
Min Amanda var fra Kjerteminde,
og hun kom til København i fjor,
sikke hendes øjne kunne skinne,
hendes tænder var som perlemor.
Hun var rank og slank, og jeg vil an’ta´,
circa tyve tommer i figur.
:/: Og jeg gik på livet med Amanda,
hver engang hun havde udgangstur. :/:
Skæbnen kommer, når man mindst den venter,
hør nu bare, hvad der mig er hændt:
Sidste søndag traf vi en bekendter
og Amanda sa’ han var student.
Med et smil tog han sin hat galant a’
og Amanda smilede igen.
:/: Og så præsenterede Amanda
mig studenten som en barndomsven. :/:
Og vi fulgtes ad til Esplanaden,
der var lummervarmt den formidda’;
og ved pavillonen spurgte raden om vi sku’ et bæger ta’,
og da just der var en tom veranda,
og som sagt det var et dejligt vejr,
:/: blev vi herrer enig med Amanda
om at ta’ den lille genstand der. :/:
Efterhånden fik vi no’et at drikke,
jeg kan ikke huske, hvad vi fik,
men jeg husker nok, at jeg fik hikke
og gik udenfor et øjeblik.
Men da jeg kom ind igen, jeg fandt a’,
der var ganske tomt ved vores bord,
:/: der var ikke skygge af Amanda,
af studenten heller ikke spor. :/:
Ak nu er min lykkestjærne dalet,
ranet af en medicinsk student,
han er på Kommunehospitalet,
og derinde er jeg ikke kendt.
Derfor spø’r jeg , tror De det er sandt a’
læger over kød og blod har ret?
:/:For når jeg så hitter min Amanda,
er hun ka’ske lavet til skelet. :/
Could you find a way to play this on a loop inside Amanda’s home at a very low volume – low enough (a) not to be an irritant to you and your staff, since we imagine that this will be on a permanent loop; and (b) to lure guests in closer to Amanda – close enough to hear her sing.
As for Amandas personal things, we would like you to make sure that the little white tablecloth is neatly arranged on her red coffee table and that her coffee cup and milk jug are placed on top of the cloth. Regarding the rest of Amandas things you are free to place them in her living environment; i.e. on her shelf, her table, the floor/walls (the sides of the box).
As to the remaining two items:
The ‘bundle’-mass should be placed at a distance of approximately 3-4m from the box (which is effectively Amanda’s home), facing Amanda. You can think of the bundle as Amanda’s mirror or twin – they are facing each other, or duplicating each other at a distance.
Finally, the podium with the legend. Please place this at an angle to the (notional) line linking Amanda and her bundle-twin. Its placing should direct the viewer’s gaze towards Amanda’s home, i.e. it should function as the kind of ‘map’ one gets at beauty-spots in the countryside, providing a guide for the landscape that can be viewed from them.
In short, this is a simple piece – two objects interacting across space, and a third one commenting on them from the side, and dramatizing the viewer’s involvement. We would be supremely grateful to you if you could arrange things with this simplicity in mind, and with love for Amanda at the heart.
Yours truly,
Martin Holbraad, Lise Røjskjær Pedersen, Nina Holm Vohnsen