'Self-Portrait of an Other' by Cees Nootebaum and Max Neumann

“Transmigration of the soul does not happen after but during a life.” Nootebaum wrote his 33 texts in response to a series of striking, raw, unsettling images drawn by Neumann in charcoal and orange paint on brown paper bags. I ordered this book after being impressed by Neumann’s artwork in Animalinside, his collaboration with writer Lazlo Krasnahorkai. Nootebaum’s texts are like dreams or memories, evanescent, full of significance without consequence and transgressing the borders of identity.

(December 2014)