Steel, wheels, castors, lifting slings, stained wood, monitors, cables, 3D-animated
videos (0:30min, looped)
The work “Labour of love” is concerned with the tension between responsibility and love, care and burden and the emotional complexity surrounding these dynamics.
Two modular engine hoist cranes, ones usually found in car or sculpture workshops that have been built from scratch by the artist, each slightly lift a wooden display box containing a monitor off the floor. The two monitors show 3D-animations of two horses that are based on real animals the artist cared for from childhood on into early adulthood. One of the animals carries visible wounds on its neck; the wounds are a connector to “Beast of Burden II”, another work featuring the two horses, in which they carry a yoke together.
The horses are recurring protagonists in what is a larger body of work addressing the conflicting emotions regarding responsibility, labour and care. The cranes lifting up the display boxes becomes symbolic for a dynamic of interdependence as well as an experience of emotionally carrying someone or something. The heavy materials used in “Labour of Love” are treated with gentle care; the act of making becomes a labour-intensive process that reflects the concepts and ideas of the work.