Installation: Jerusalem Thorn
Dimensions: 12 ft.66 in. x 8 ft.38 in. x 9 ft. 02 in.
Materials: wire, tape, fabric, plastic bags, plastic net
Exhibition: Berge versetzen
Venue: Galerie Ursula Walter, Dresden, 2016
For Susanne Kessler‘s Installation “Jerusalem Thorn”
A city like Jerusalem hides more than it is ready at first glance to reveal. The top layer of life is visible even as it foreshadows how its underground could emerge. In the 19th century Christians, Jews and Muslims still lived peacefully with each other; our time draws a totally different picture.
Not without ulterior motives, the artist has chosen a city plan of Jerusalem from the 19th century upon which to interweave the face of this city.
The plan grows up into the air like a plant. It is a picture of the city that can be described by the structure of the veins that nourish it. Some parts die, others continue to develop…
The colors have not been chosen randomly: they are meant to remind one of Jerusalem. The colors of one’s first association are reminiscent of the Jerusalem -Thorn. They are the color of the thorns of further reference: a potential of figurative hurt. Yet the plant is also known as a remedy against fever – a palliative of which the various duelling groups could surely benefit.
This plant, Jerusalem Thorn, it is not too far from the burning bush of historical exegesis: after all it is a bush the abuse of whose essential oils can lead to a spontaneous combustion or conflagration.
Excerpt from the speech of Moritz Stange in the exhibit “Moving Mountains”, Galerie Ursula Walter, Dresden