AUTOMEDITATION

",Eastern’ meditation has long found its ‘western’ counterpart in prayer. Prayer comes in many forms, from fervent rapture to literary petifoggery – in arguments with God. – In the semi-darkness of the church, old women sit and pray the Rosary. Crowded close together – in pews –  they mumble like an eerily babbling brook. They are a humming collective body that – infinitely slowly – moves bead after bead through its hands. They are working on the great ‘tapestry’ and mumble and weave for hours on end.

(I had almost forgotten that)

In the frenzied din of the factory floor – at the Gutmann textile mill in Göppingen – the drone of the machines brought the mumbling women back to me. At a certain frequency, the crankshafts of the automatic looms sounded ‘human.’ Like 2 friction disks, the songs came ever closer and then briefly converged. The voices came from inside … the mumbling generating the bass notes merged with the whining metal to form a whole. I singsonged my way through the hours and days – and managed to winter there for 1 year. – In discos too – or in a car – the mysterious singsong always stole along … as if the women were locked into the gearbox and the vibration allowed them to push their way out. Or as unbalanced tires – that understand – that – OUR FA THER WHO ART IN HEA VEN defines them like a tire profile – and as they race along – they pray … per 300 km … 1,244,000 times".

Thomas Bayrle, February 19, 1987