Thanks for your christmas-card and letter of jan 17th with the pictures. I'm sorry it took a while before I find the time to write you, it's been quite busy doing different things lately. Last week opened the exhibition on the sculpture-contest, and in 10 days there will be another official memorial or whatever held concerning the prizes. As a matter of fact it's on march 17th, which als happens to be your birthday! All these coincidences! I got the check from the prize in the mail the day my mother died, I was looking forward for her to be cured on the opening of the exhibition, which was a very official event, with speeches and photographs taken. No way though. I told you she'd been quite ill, having had a serious operation last summer (removal of a part of her lung), she was getting much better recently though. But then she got this fever, which they thought was influenza, it grw worse though, and she was taken to hospital, I didn't know about it until she had entered a coma, which she didn't leave the 2 weeks I went to see her every day, I kind of only saw her getting weaker and the cancerous cells attacking her brain and setting up all her bodily functions to go berserk, she finally died february 5th, not even 50 years old. I also told you before I have a sister, who is only 15, so that's kind of sad too, since this period in her life is when she needed her mother most I guess, I'll have to try and get her over here as much as possible. My father is a difficult person, uninterested in everything, he never reads a book or goes to a movie-theatre, he has no hobbies, just works in a factory and does nothing, not even go to a bar. He's only acting stubborn all the time, imposing his will onto others. We'll have to see what happens.

It might seem that we, and our audiences, think evil is 'neat and cool'. That is in a way so, criminals, especially the evil-doers, are very strong personalities, who act 'cool' in the same way we might do. This however does not mean we encourage crime. It is not because you are fascinated by a certain subject, this means you approve of it, this would mean that lawyers approve of crime as well, since they are continuously into it, even trying to whitewash it one way or another, but one can hardly say lawyers encourage crime, I hope it's rather the opposite! So with reporters, they had just recently these images of Isrealian soldiers beating up Palstinians with rocks, breaking their arms and fingers. The people who filmed it, can hardly be accused of encouraging it, no they do what they're supposed to do, show the people what happens. We kind of do the same, yet our interest is very specific, what makes something good or evil? That's one of our main interests. I guess we are in some way almost scientific investigators, who choose to present images on the way of our inquests and people should not just accept what's been told, we think they should start thinking, indeed our art isn't for 'art's sake',and it can hardly be said it's for the Dollar's sake since we don't live in luxury, but rather poor (you know we have to live with about 600 Dollars a month for both of us, eating, paying bills, clothing and whatever is necessary, inclusing all the stuff to keep working as artists?). Our art makes people wonder why we make it, but also, in the meantime they're fed with some points of interest they'd never get their hands on elsewhere, but do exist. Evil does exist, wether you like it or not,and it's no use trying to hide it, too many people do that already, by putting that stuff into the art-context, people can get a different view on it, try to find out what eveil is. A serial killer is generally regarded as something evil I suppose, but yet that man hasn't been evil to lots of people he encountered, yet he has been 'cool' and 'neat' to business-partners, relatives and friends, and often he's been going on for years, I guess you have to be 'cool' to keep going on with killing anyway. Yet, again, I'm not saying 'cool' is therfore a positive point of view. Most mass-murderers have very high IQ's and are strong personalities, I only try to grasp what makes this little twist that makes them 'evil', that makes relatively harmless phantasy or daydream or whatever turn into reality. Everybody phantasizes sooner or later about some weird thing, killing a person or committing some perverse sexual act, or stealing something, when you're at work, or on the bus,or in a quiet street on a