Emma Hauck, wife and mother of two children, was admitted to the clinic in Heidelberg in 1909. For a year she wrote letters to her husband, but they were never sent. Written in pencil, filled with repetitions: “Herzensschatzi komm” (“darling, come”) or only “komm komm komm” (“come come come”). Words overwritten, blurred, almost invisible. A document of loneliness, unfulfilled desires, and longing. The letters became part of Hans Prinzhorn’s collection, assembled between 1919–1921. In 2000 the Quay Brothers created the animation In Absentia, a visual record of the experience of schizophrenia. Her letters are like meditation, like incantations. They inspired me to draw: straight lines, repetitive, imperfect, slightly trembling, blurred. On some I recorded time and its passing. Drawing brought me into a state of meditation, trance, oblivion. Each new drawing is a record that does not need sophistication, but rather concentration and humility.sdfsegyeruhrtsjmbnfgnf
