Cristina David

Happy End for Herman
(2013)

The Queen of Spades is a novel by Alexander Pushkin written in 1833 in which the author describes the obsession of Herman, an officer in the Imperial Russian army, for the secret about a gambling cards game called Faro.
The German officer succeeds to find an answer for a secure winning. He doesn't know the algorithm behind the solution that he found with the cost of a life, but Herman trusts the information and he proceed to try it in a real game. By a silly twist of events Herman looses at Faro. He goes mad and is committed to an asylum.

I disagree with this sad end of the novel. It is unfair. The officer was only surprised by the possibility of a gambling game to have something so sure as a 100% winning solution. It was not the greed that made him follow his plan, it was curiosity. Scientific curiosity, maybe fascination for the mathematic theory of probabilities.
That is why I prepared a card desk especially designed for Herman. He would not be able to loose now.
Three, seven and ace are the winning cards in the Queen of Spades novel.

In my Age Group
(2013, ongoing - A fresh started book collection)

In my age group is a subjective collection of books, mostly the last ones written by their authors. With two exceptions, they were all in their 30s when they passed away. When I started to collect and read these books I was curios to find out if there are any similarities, any common point, clichés such as a sort of exaggerate pathos or some sort of feeling of anxiety, since all of these writers decided to end their lives. Only some of the books have indeed a sort of pattern, for example the depression as a stable subject, but few are full of wit lines and even great humor that celebrate life rather than undervalue it.

My approach may seem morbid, but that was not at all my intention. The one single biographical common element that connects the authors it was not the goal, but just a starting point. Biography of the writer and literature sometimes match, sometimes the second is mostly fictional. Just as any art piece, the artist may decide how much wants to delimitate the creative process from personal life.

Books:


Better, by John O'Brien
The Godwits Fly, by Robin Hyde
A Fool's Life, by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
Chess- A Novel, by Stefan Zweig
The Satyricon, by Petronius Arbiter
A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole
Die stille Gewalt der Träume, by K. Sello Duiker
El diario de Geza Csath / Diary of Geza Csath, by Géza Csáth
Murder, by Danielle Collobert
Doctor Dare: Spear of Destiny v. 1, by George Caragonne
Le roman cassé et derniers écrits, by René Crevel
A Gent from Bear Creek And Other Tales, by Robert, E. Howard
Notre besoin de consolation est impossible à rassasier, by Stig Dagerman, Philippe Bouquet
La Déchéance d'un homme, by Dazaï Osamu
Billedpistolen, by Michael Strunge

We seek ourselves on horizontally
(2013)

First letter- a postcard:

7.09.2012
hour 23:19, Vatra Dornei

My dear,

I hope my letter finds you well and fulfilled, just as I felt you at our last meeting. I told you already but I repeat myself, the ceremony of you becoming a monk was moving, I was happy to see you so calm on your choice (n.t. of becoming a monk).
What has changed since you became Isaiah, the monk? You must do heavier works at the monastery?

I promised that I write you from the trip and I keep my word.

We are already the fourth day of the tour, we checked Vatra Dornei. Yesterday we slept in Baia Mare, where we visited the city museum of mineralogy.

I send you a postcard with a quartz, maybe the time at monastery will pass differently if you have a picture of the crystal that has one of the most stable electron frequency.
Tonight I discovered Radautean soup. You should try it, I tell you the recipe next time we meet, maybe you will surprise your brothers from the monastery, that is if you are not fasting all the time.

We have 3 more days, with sleeping in Suceava and Izvorul Muresului. We' ll visit many monasteries, I'll take many pictures to show you.

I hope to see you soon!

Plenty of health for you,
Cristina


Second letter- the answer:
My dear cousin,

With great joy I received your letter. I want to be for 40 days in isolation from people and events, in uninterrupted silence, to pray and to meditate on all that happened.
The abbot, in his mercy, aloud me to answer your letter on one condition: to be a short answer.
I know you are not close to faith and the Holy Church, but I would like you to visit me and us to chat like we used to do whenever we met on vacation at grandma's. Thank you for the quartz picture.
I see you still seek yourself on horizontally with all your globetrotters, so come along as well to visit me, maybe you will find a piece of yourself here.

God help us!

Your humble Isaiah- September 15, 2012

Statistics
(2013 - 154 x 21cm - unique edition + 1 artist proof)

My personal statistics based on an experience of living in a collective for 2 months
(July – August 2013)


I learned 34 new words in French, 2 words in Slovakian, 2 in Polish.

I repeated 87 times the 3 words I knew in Hungarian.

I ate

- 54 breakfast meals;
- 41 lunch meals;
- 52 dinner meals.

I took 56 showers.

I lived in 7 rooms.

I talked to 76 people I didn't know before

- with 21 people I had pleasant conversations;
- 6 people made me angry;
- with 3 people I had conversations that made me smarter.

I laughed 100 times, only 2 persons made me laugh in the therapeutic sense of laughing.

I saw 11 new movies.

I read 3 books.

I swam in a swimming pool 7 times.

I was all alone in a semi-Olympic swimming pool 4 times.

I cried 3 times, for 3 different reasons:

- first time out of pity;
- the second time out of disappointment caused by someone dear to me;
- the third time because of a lie.

I fell in love 2 times, I fell out of love 1 time.

I listened to music I didn't want to listen to for 34 times.

I got lost 1 time in the mountains, 2 times in the city.

I wrote 30 txt messages.

I watched TV 5 times.

I took 14 pictures.

I filmed 2 hours of raw material.

I got melancholic 8 times.

I used 7 rolls of toilet paper.

I fixed my watch 5 times.

I envied 3 people.

I said the “F” word 53 times.

I crossed 7 bridges.

I lost 1 thing.

I got sick 2 times.

I was alone for 50 hours.

I drank 6 coffee cups.

I though of committing murder 1 time.

I wrote my full name 9 times.

I still have 10 fingers on my hands.

I smoked 1 cigarette.

I got soaked by rain 5 times.

I opened a window for 48 times.

I closed a window for 20 times.

I saw 87 different cloud shapes.

I felt ashamed 3 times.

I washed my clothes 7 times.

I talked with 4 police people.

One bird shit on me.

I built one nonfunctional mini-wagon.

I had 6 different currencies in my wallet.

I saw 13 excavators.

I flew once.

I drank 36 litters of water.

I imagined 5 people falling down from a tall building.

I bought 2 identical dresses.

I throw 3 times garbage on the floor.

I met one perfect couple.

I biked 3 times.

I was afraid one time.

I visited 2 libraries.

3 boys made me start liking mustaches.

I wrote/ said “I” for 489 times.

154cm
(site specific installation)

Libraries - project
(2014)

libraries - element 1
(video)

Libraries - element 2
(video)

libraries - element 3