Title ... MOMMY?
Year 2017
Material Wax, Sound, Wood
Size Variable
Guest Hede Bühl: Mummy (1972)
Location Kunsthaus NRW
Info
“The installation developed for the Kunsthaus NRW “… Mommy?” is a kind of link between the media-reflective position and narrative perspective. The (film) image is supplemented by the sound factor and sculptural elements. A key scene from the film “Terminator II” can be heard as a monologue, while the mother's words come from a sound shower to an intense red wax print underneath. The „energy field” between two people is imprinted in the material: The space between the terminator and his protégé was first converted into a positive form and turned from wood. Here Hermann continues a series of earlier works, each based on similar situations in films. In “reflecting”, however, it does not stop with the reproduced form, but the analysis goes one step further by literally printing the scene. The wooden sculpture is formed in the heat-sensitive wax into an emblem of the visible and the audible. That crucial scene of the feature film including the roles of mother (“mommy”), father figure and son gets reconstructed in the exhibition space on various media levels. This internal family conflict is supplemented by an additional dialogue with a historical artist position. In the Kunsthaus NRW, Hermann takes the wooden sculpture “Mummy” by Hede Bühl (1972) from the collection and stages it in the context of “… Mommy?” As an embodiment and symbol of duration and transition.” (ELKE KANIA)