Rosemarie Trockel

<p>There were irregularly distributed and mostly small dark patches that stood out, small flat shadows, bits of shadows, that drew together as one approached and then shrank or broke up into discrete black splinters and vanished in the matte gray light that had spread out over the surface of the street. Larger areas sometimes appeared, black, hand size, recessed or angular at the edges, jagged and sharp, troughs and holes that fell away as one looked and that were followed by new, differently shaped patches. Farther ahead they flowed into one another, blurring into one dull black area resembling a big, dark floe that seemed to recede the closer one got to it. From this floe smaller splinters crumbled, detaching themselves at the edge and advancing, steadily and slowly, like puddles drifting to the surface, oil puddles, flecks, black, rigidified flecks. Then they floated away under one’s footsteps, hemmed in at both sides by the curbs of the sidewalks. The sidewalks were narrow. Narrow, slightly elevated strips, they ran along the fronts of the buildings, just wide enough for one person. Meeting or wishing to overtake such a person, one had either to force them onto the street or to step onto it oneself, so that it was not too clear why the sidewalks were distinct from the street at all. The street was surfaced with rough-hewn basalt blocks. It was a narrow shaft that fell away slightly to where it met a broader, asphalted street. This side street was only sparsely lit. Neon lamps hung over the street at spacious intervals coating the fronts of the buildings, like the street, in a mealy film of pale white light, so that all the buildings seemed to have been painted the same white -gray color, a pasty white with areas that stood out where the rendering was coarse, dirty, or already scaling…</p>