Ni main ni pied - no. 396 1955

Hans Richter made “Ni main ni pied - no. 396” with paper and plastic. Looking at this image, I start to imagine what it was like to make. He's shuffling things around, right? Layering, cutting, deciding. Hands and feet, but neither hand nor foot! It's about being in the world, but also about distance. Hands inside gloves. Is that a see-through raincoat? He's playing with what's present and what's absent. The dark foot shape contrasts with the translucence of the gloves. The contrast heightens the tension of the image. Like he is saying: here, but also not quite. He's in a long conversation with other artists about presence and absence. It reminds me of Kurt Schwitters’ collages, that also speak of the everyday, and the personal, like a diary page. Richter's work seems like an embrace of ambiguity and impermanence. It's a reminder that art isn't about answers, but about the questions we ask along the way.