Four prints that witness the absent presence of cultural artefacts—an absence deeply felt within ethnographic collections, and here, specifically within the Oceania Collection of the Linden-Museum Stuttgart.

Each print focuses on a single cultural object from Papua New Guinea, representing four distinct language groups. Acquired at the beginning of the 20th century, these objects have since “disappeared”: though their inventory numbers remain, no trace of their physical presence exists within the museum’s holdings. What, then, survives? Several theories have been proposed. The most plausible, according to the collection curator, is they were destroyed in a museum fire during the Second World War.

A Grammar of Absence presents descriptions written by the curator of the Oceania Collection in both English and German, based on the only remaining evidence of these artefacts: a few grainy silver gelatin photographs. Departing from the conventions of museum labelling, Sandler invited the curator to write beyond the merely factual, producing texts that blend expertise with careful restraint—avoiding speculation while offering as rich a cultural context as possible.

Each poster carries a quiet acknowledgement: none of these objects remain. Their material forms are lost. What endures are fragments of photographic textures, archival shadows, and considered words.


A Grammar of Absence - 2023 - The Linden-Museum & Institut Français - Stuttgart, Germany.