About Writer's Block

To create "Writer's Block", artist Sheryl Oring collected more than 600 typewriters from the 1920s and 30s and then "caged" them in boxes made of rusty construction steel. By imprisoning the typewriters, Oring takes away the writer's tool. The result is a symbolic statement about censorship that leads viewers to examine their ideas about free expression.

"Writer's Block" premiered to much acclaim on Berlin's Bebelplatz, site of that city's Nazi book-burning, on May 10, 1999. This was the 66th anniversary of the 1933 event that destroyed the works of authors ranging from Nelly Sachs and Else Lasker-Schüler to Bertolt Brecht and Arnold Zweig.

"Oring's work is impressive on various levels," said Tom Freudenheim, who as Deputy Director of the Jewish Museum Berlin staged a second showing of Writer's Block in August 1999. "Created in Berlin as a means of conjuring up feelings about a German historical event, the symbolism nevertheless speaks assertively to issues of our own time, when artistic and literary freedom is still at risk in many places. This is one of those rare art works which succeeds on both aesthetic and political terms."

Artist Biography

Deutsche Welle TV reports from Berlin (Real Video)