Office Grill

Office Grill. No doubt some will object--this is an unquestionably groddy view. But it was late in the evening, and I’d been looking around--quite literally, that is--it was the night I took the last set of these photographs. And I’d moved beyond the things that were “personally meaningful” (these categories we make for ourselves!) to those that were meaningful in general.

 Not that I’m sure there’s really any difference. The grill here masks the innards of my office radiator. Came with the original building design in the early ‘60’s, and still very much reflects that technology. Like something from Sputnik, or an Explorer satellite--those hopefully rounded shapes at the end of each mechanical indentation. I’m sure there was a meaning attached--these things always have meaning. But now, time has taken control, and it’s very hard to see the form through the all the layers of corrosion--the dust and dirt, scuff marks at the bottom, the traces of rust near the floor. Each now part of the original--Walter Benjamin’s notion of aura again--the properties of an original at a certain distance...

 I wonder if that sounds as good in German--I imagine that the abstract nouns would seem even more abstract--whereas in English, it’s borderline Keats.

 Meaning that it's a part of each one of us…