Crackers

Peter Wächtler's third publication with Sternberg Press collects texts and images produced during the preparation of his 2024 show Crackers at the independent exhibition space Simian in Copenhagen, Denmark, and in its aftermath. This eponymous publication brings together an extended version of the exhibition text, three scripts that were intended to provide the basis for a video work but never developed as such, and a short story performed at a reading, along with selected production photos and installation views. Exploring the narrative potential of broken sculptures for still life paintings, or of a barista's working day for a dragonheavy draft of fantasy, the texts give a keyed-up voice to an aging hipster-self, realizing that other forces grew in the dark while they were busy hurting, healing, climbing. The material shares a fumbling approach to fiction and non-fiction, presenting an honest but humorous portrayal of the tension between the outside world and the inner life of a person or an artist in particular.