Erin K. Schmidt

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  • Home
  • books
    • all books
    • birds of a feather >
      • As The Crow Flies
      • Dumped for a Stripper
      • fight or flight
      • Icare
      • sanctuary
      • the dovecote
      • the birds and the bees
      • wrecked
    • body language >
      • anamnesis
      • covfefe
      • hem/o
      • hoax
      • jubblies
      • long blonde hair
      • Learning to Knit
      • perforate
      • THE END OF THE WASP SEASON
      • The Unfinished Blanket
      • tiny maps
      • TRIUMPH
      • veiled muse
    • forest through the trees >
      • day/night
      • house in the wood
      • little canopies
      • the coyote's gift (in shadows)
      • tempted
      • remember me with affection
    • sheep's clothing >
      • 1954
      • buried in memory
      • I remember how we met
      • winter stayed late
    • troubled water >
      • life is but a dream
      • loon lake
      • not this year
      • tea and water pipe
      • Tea Party
      • Telling Time
      • waves
      • what news
  • about
    • exhibitions
    • collections
    • education
    • bibliography
    • awards
  • contact

tea and water pipe

Two layers of paper are bound together in concertina to create intimate architectural spaces that are visible through lattice windows. Each page contains one brief thought, text that can only be viewed by looking closely through these windows into what is quickly revealed to be a private space. It is a weekly ritual of tea and water pipe, a celebration of friendship, a lament for a departed friend.
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The repetitive text begins with two friends sharing tea and water pipe, and ends with one friend alone, in mourning, remembering, carrying on the weekly ritual that he and his friend once cherished. As he mourns in silence, the text becomes nearly invisible.
                                                                                                 
The back side of the concertina contains randomly selected pages of poetry by Al-Mutanabbi, the namesake of the bombed booksellers’ street. And, like the street, it is rebuilt, but not whole. A large part is missing and cannot be replaced.


Concertina book, die cut vellum, inkjet printing on 250gsm Rives BFK, 3¾” x 5¼” x ½”.  First edition of 10. Second edition of 50. 2012.  

Created as part of the coalition of book artists for An Inventory of Al Mutanabbi Street in response to the 2007 bombing of the booksellers’ road in Baghdad.
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