Magdalena Frauenberg
Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, "A Hypocrite and Slanderer" and battle-maid-01
2024
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Copyright the artist; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf; Photo Tino Kukulies
Milled wood
90 x 90 x 60 cm
The lead frames of the church windows cast sharp shadow grids on my cold face. For decades, I stood here, while the building, cradling me, sank more and more into the damp and mossy ground. My skin grew soft by the touch of generations. I heard countless stories and prayers. My left toes, in their descending, detached position, had been pointing to the upcoming event. Timidly lifting themselves from the worn-out plinth. I have seen people come and go, standing here, mourning an empty grave with all of us while the cold stone arches are mirroring in my hard pupils. Perhaps I could have read the future in the notches of my metal fingertips, but not even I could realize that the feelings in my heavily decorated bronze chest would make me run away.
