Anselm Kiefer – Walhalla
Upon entering the White Cube, visitors are filed into the show, where security hands them a warning letter; a disclaimer that they enter at their own risk. It is a gateway to another dimension; everything is in a solid state — even the air, the void is thick with lead. Anselm Kiefer’s prophetic vision of the cataclysmic future, the Trumpian mentality triumphing over reason, with its futile exertion to accumulate stockpiles of golden nuggets; in this place, such concepts becomes meaningless as is life and death or good and evil.
a warning letter; a disclaimer that they enter at their own risk. It is a gateway to another dimension;
In some nooks and crannies, the gold may shine, interspersed amongst debris leftovers from the apocalypse. There is no one to value it or mine it for any purpose. The family is in a room, with the couples on the “Kingsize bed” congealed into a big molten blob, their soul frozen in mid-flight, there is no heaven to escape to, the angels’ wings are feeble. Their children and pets turned into cute little boulders. Here, is devoid of time-dimension, all eerily stand still.
the couples on the “Kingsize bed” congealed into a big molten blob, their soul frozen in mid-flight there is no heaven
In the archival vault, a dense atmosphere is entombed. The total sum of knowledge, science, history, and art; pulverised to smithereens.
Maybe noticeable is the protruding barrel of a machine gun made from some exotic material spared destruction; it stands out looking shiny and new. An ineffectual instrument of death, that has lost its purpose, with no one left to operate it, kill or train upon. Its archivist aptly labelled it “Nothing”, so thus only a whimsical relic.
The crafty serpent (The Devil) – is no more In this universe
Here, the “Garden of Eden” has been turned on its head, the “Apple Tree” phosphorised to ashen white, with all its branches dry, no fruits or leaves, barren to its roots. The crafty serpent, (The Devil), is no more. In this universe, there is no place for playful Biblical interactions. The dark angel drained of all its cunningness turned into a rusty mush suspended in a state of eternal boxed nothingness.
White Cube – Bermondsey, 144 – 152 Bermondsey Street London SE1 3TQ