unaulutu: Pebbles in the Sand

The Getty houses an impressive collection of artists’ books that blur the line between traditional books and contemporary works of art.

One of the most special is unaulutu. It embodies the limitless possibilities of what a book can be: a portable, sensory exhibition capable of overcoming boundaries of space and time.

The title is a word from the Karaja, a central-Brazilian Indigenous tribe. It translates to “pebbles in the sand,” a phrase meant to inspire the reader to look closely at the world and recognize its beauty.

The Discovery of a Sketchbook

unaulutu was created in 1985 by two artists from the German Democratic Republic—Olaf Wegewitz and Frieder Heinze—in Leipzig, the epicenter of the country’s book art.

The creation of unaulutu began when Wegewitz discovered a sketchbook in the archives of the Leipzig Museum of Ethnography. It contained the fieldwork of German anthropologist Fritz Krause from his work amongst the Karaja.

It also contained drawings made by the Karaja tribespeople that demonstrated their deep connection to their environment and craftsmanship. Wegewitz and Heinze became interested in the collaborative process Krause used during his fieldwork.

When Karaja tribespeople were asked to draw specific objects into Krause’s notebook, these patterns were immediately understood by other Karaja community members, as they related to basket-weaving designs that carried specific meanings. For example, the diagonal zig-zag lines in the left image below represent ‘bat’, the animal.

In unaulutu, Wegewitz and Heinze juxtaposed sketches from the Karaja notebook with their own original works. The result is a dynamic dialogue across time and space, between two East German artists in the mid-1980s and Karaja tribespeople in the early 1900s.

Above, Wegewitz incorporated geometric patterns into his work, much like the basket-weaving patterns of the Karaja. The original title of the plate was the Karaja word koju, meaning "magic doctor." Wegewitz later replaced many of the Karaja titles of his plates with the date of their creation.

The use of full, unedited pages from the sketchbook, which include notes from the anthropologist, demonstrates how the artists contextualized the history of the sketches—adding another layer of complexity to unaulutu.

Wegewitz and Heinze addressed the impact of colonization on Indigenous communities, and explored these themes through their artwork and a selection of pre-colonial stories, poems, and prayers.

The above work, Labyrinth and Labyrinth, zerstӧrt, is a collaboration of the two artists. The left side, by Heinze, depicts a peaceful scene of fantastical creatures; whereas the work on the right by Wegewitz alludes to something darker, the destruction of a labyrinth space, incorporating Karaja weaving patterns on the upper right side.

Karaja Inspiration: Connection to the Natural Environment

The Karaja also inspired the artists’ art-making process, which required them to physically interact with their environment to create both the book’s tactile elements as well as its intricate construction.

The work below features haptic and playful elements. The artists were inspired by the Karaja basket-weaving traditions when they created the woven palm-leaf braid (on the bottom left page), using palm leaves sourced from the Leipzig botanical garden. They also created a bullroarer: a spinning sound-making device often found in Latin America, made of natural elements such as birch tree bark and bamboo.

Besides its tactile dimensions, the artists have presented special moments of their cultural encounters in beautiful, colorful prints.

The two prints above by Heinze address the perception of silence in unaulutu. The title of the print on the left is Wetterleuchten, meaning silent lightning, and the print on the right is called Stille, meaning silence.

Sound is an important theme in unaulutu. To further experience this artist’s book, find a silent space for yourself, and listen to the many sounds of unaulutu’s covers, papers, materials, and textures in this ASMR video: