The Wind’s Cries & the Spirals of OZ

"You can’t take your attention from the tempest or it will rip open your last defenses. You try for sanity’s sake to fix on some calm detail of your surroundings, but the wind’s cries are able to inhabit a cushion or a figure in the rug or a tiny whirlpool in the window glass."
— Alice Munro, My Mother’s Dream

Like the wind’s cries in Munro’s story, OZ’s spirals and symbols spread across the cityscape, impossible to ignore. His graffiti didn’t just exist; it demanded attention, creeping into every corner of Hamburg, from subway walls to forgotten alleyways.

OZ (Walter Josef Fischer, 1950-2014) left a mark that divided opinion: vandalism or urban poetry? His endless loops, smileys and cryptic signs weren't just scribbles - they were the city's silent pulse, the echoes of a man who refused to be erased.

A dreamer's legacy

OZ's indomitable spirit and boundless creativity inspire me to dedicate a mini-course on Traumleser to him - not just as an artist, but as a dreamer. A man whose vision transcended walls, rules and time. His spirals weren't just symbols; they were the expression of something deeper, something urgent.

This thought was inspired by the German podcast series "OZ. Graffiti-Künstler. Schmierfink. Rebell."