![a sort of speech, installation view](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/Installation_view_Edmund_de_Waal_Goethestrasse_photo__def_image_12.jpg)
a sort of speech, installation view2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![a sort of speech, installation view](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/Installation_view_Edmund_de_Waal_Goethestrasse_photo__def_image_13.jpg)
a sort of speech, installation view2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![a sort of speech, installation view](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/Installation-view_Edmund-de-Waal_Goethe_photo__def_image_sRGB_16zu9.jpg)
a sort of speech, installation view2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![somewhere and somewhen](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5255-photo__def_image.jpg)
somewhere and somewhen2019
7 porcelain vessels, 4 porcelain tiles with gilding, 5 alabaster blocks and 2 marble blocks (1 with gilding), in a free-standing vitrine with plexiglass glazing, aluminium frame finished with gold leaf and a plexiglass plinth
66 x 140 x 30 cm
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![somewhere and somewhen (detail)](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/_mediumImage/Edmund-de-Waal_Galerie-Max-Hetzler-Berlin_somewhere-and-somewhen-D1-3.jpg)
somewhere and somewhen (detail)2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![im Waldau, I; im Waldau, II (installation view)](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5527-photo__def_image.jpg)
im Waldau, I; im Waldau, II (installation view)2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![a sort of speech, installation view](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5273-photo__def_image.jpg)
a sort of speech, installation view2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![response to a request](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5362-photo__def_image.jpg)
response to a request2019
8 porcelain tiles with embossed, handwritten text and 1 marble block in a free-standing vitrine with plexiglass glazing, aluminium frame finished with gold leaf and a plexiglass plinth
58 x 76 x 28 cm
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![response to a request (detail)](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/response-to-a-request-D2.jpg)
response to a request (detail)2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![you start writing](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5308-photo__def_image.jpg)
you start writing2019
Liquid kaolin inscribed with handwritten text
Two sides of wall each 103 cm in length and 350 cm in height
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![a sort of speech, installation view](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5335-photo__def_image.jpg)
a sort of speech, installation view2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![atmen](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/_mediumImage/Edmund-de-Waal_Galerie-Max-Hetzler-Berlin_atmen-01.jpg)
atmen2019
22 porcelain vessels and 13 porcelain tiles with embossed handwritten text (5 with platinum gilding) in 5 aluminium and plexiglass vitrines
52 x 94 x 11cm each. 272 x 94 x 12 cm overall.
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![a sort of speech, installation view](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5621-photo__def_image.jpg)
a sort of speech, installation view2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![asche](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/_mediumImage/Edmund-de-Waal_Galerie-Max-Hetzler-Berlin_asche-01A.jpg)
asche2019
porcelain slip inscribed with handwritten text in charcoal and gilding on 3 wooden panels, 1 lime, 1 ash and 1 oak
Each panel 85 x 192 x 4.5 cm
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![asche (detail)](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/_mediumImage/Edmund-de-Waal_Galerie-Max-Hetzler-Berlin_asche-D2.jpg)
asche (detail)2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![a wilde civility; asche](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5737-photo__def_image.jpeg)
a wilde civility; asche2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![a wilde civility](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5716-photo__def_image.jpeg)
a wilde civility2019
20 porcelain vessels, 1 with gilding, in an aluminium and plexiglass vitrine with alabaster plinth
34 x 18 x 16 cm
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![a sort of speech, installation view](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/Installation-view_Edmund-de-Waal_Bleibtreustraße_photo__def_image_sRGB.jpg)
a sort of speech, installation view2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![for those who live in cities; casualty list (installation view)](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5834-photo__def_image.jpeg)
for those who live in cities; casualty list (installation view)2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![ash, needle, pencil, match; mnéma (installation view)](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5783-photo__def_image.jpeg)
ash, needle, pencil, match; mnéma (installation view)2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![mnéma; ash, needle, pencil, match (installation view)](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5803-photo__def_image.jpeg)
mnéma; ash, needle, pencil, match (installation view)2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![mnéma; black sea](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5772-photo__def_image.jpeg)
mnéma; black sea2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![black sea](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5762-photo__def_image.jpeg)
black sea2019
18 porcelain vessels and 13 steel boxes in 12 aluminium and plexiglass vitrines
21 x 226 x 10 cm
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.
![a sort of speech, installation view](https://www.edmunddewaal.com/files/making/a-sort-of-speech/_mediumImage/1909-Galerie-Max-Hetzler5815-photo__def_image.jpeg)
a sort of speech, installation view2019
a sort of speech
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
22 September – 2 November 2019
a sort of speech is an exhibition of new and recent work staged across both Galerie Max Hetzler locations in Berlin. The new installations are a 'series of detours' through the work of Robert Walser, the modernist Swiss writer, whose literary output is the central inspiration behind the exhibition. Walser’s so-called 'pencil method' - an obsessive form of notation in microscript - allowed him to explore the immersive qualities of writing, something which has long held great significance for de Waal; "I love his writings...the way he made texts. I love his understanding of making as a way of marking time. Text can be sculpture, sculpture a sort of speech".
In response to this idea, de Waal has made a new series of sculptures - free-standing vitrines holding paper-thin sheets of porcelain, embossed with his own handwritten texts, which are leant or stacked like pages of a notebook against vessels or marble fragments. Some hold these porcelain elements without any vessel forms - the first installations of their kind. For the 10m-long wall in the Goethestraße gallery, he has also made his first site-specific text piece for Berlin. Gilded with sheets of gold leaf and overpainted with kaolin slip, de Waal has written into the surface, transcribing his own Walser-inspired texts and microscripts.