Herzilein 2012 Alfter, Germany

Herzilein (literally “sweetheart”) is rooted in my life experience; recent years have been an exhausting time of enduring the suffering, illness and deaths of people who meant something to me.

The installation has some gloominess, but the work also presents the way toward the natural light, to flowering bushes. The joy of discovery, of creating freely and responding freely is palpable, even if there are dark echoes underneath.

In this work, levels of installation and photography overlap. Photos that document the installation also become a part of the installation itself. Photos are presented on the walls, depicting the hearts hanging in the trees like rose-colored fruit. Then the viewer walks outside to see the hearts hanging there in reality.

Herzilein directly emphasizes the interaction of these two levels of perception: photography and installation.

Both Herzilein and Voyage humain have symbolic and realistic components. Their subject is significant and profound: life, nature, death, violence, humanity. I employ the authentic components of real blood and actual animal hearts. Every object stands for itself and at the same time it stands for something symbolic and existential, to present layers of meaning and provoke deeper associations.