Transcending the Ladder

Article

The ‘ladder of heaven’ of John Klimakos, 12^th Century,

Alchemy and Mysticism, Alexander Roob, Taschen Books 1997

Heavenly ladder of St. John of Sinai, John Klimakos, 12^th Century,

Tempera on Wood, Monastery of St. Catherine — Mount Sinai

Tanya Ury’s article written in English entitled Transcending the Ladder about the development and research for her project Jacob’s Ladder appears in ‘From Work to Word’ edited and published by Doris Frohnapfel, Professor of Photography at the Bergen Art Academy, Korridor Verlag, ISBN 3−9804354−8−2 (D) 2002

“Over the following pages, I would like to illustrate my own working practice as an artist, which includes story telling. In particular, I will demonstrate my fascination with the legend of Jacob that was originally engendered by many and complex recurring childhood dreams. In those dreams, menacingly deep escalators tumbled and slid the traveller into an underworld, from turned-up-level steps. There were also shaky elevator constructions made of bare planks on building sites of Babel proportions; and then there were the piles of chairs that reached precariously up into starlit heavens, which one dared to clamber, only as a last resort when pursued by demons. A process of collecting together ideas and raw material in more recent years, eventually lead to several art works, directly or indirectly inspired by the stories of Jacob’s vision of a ladder to heaven, and his struggle with the angel.”

Jacob’s Ladder – a collection of works:

“Tanya Ury uses text, sound and image in her projects. As opposed to a theory of the form and content of the work of art, however, it is here the intention of the artist that stands in the foreground. The artist conceives herself to be a medium, intermediary between life and art. Her conceptions are expressed, always with great effectiveness, in the free use she makes of resources and possibilities: in the form of photography, with text, video, with sound, and installation, in the form of audiocassette, neon sign or story telling. The sources and roots of her stories are linked to catastrophic historical circumstances. History is not just understood as something that exists in the past. Ury’s text Transcending the Ladder forms part of a series, along with other investigations such as Taking on the Mantle 1999 (1) Die Gehängten/Hung Up 1999 (2) and Building Bridges 2001 (3), which, like the selection of her pictures in the text, show that the facts established by research provide the conditions for the fiction that is a work of art.”

Doris Frohnapfel

(1) in: AufBrüche — Kulturelle Produktionen von Migrantinnen, Schwarzen und jüdischen Frauen in Deutschland (Marginal Cracks — Cultural Production of Women Migrants, Black and Jewish Women in Germany), Ulrike Helmer Verlag ISBN 3−89741−042−7 (D)

(2) in: Termini Technici catalogue, Salon Verlag, ISBN 3−89770−150−2 (D) 2001

(3) in: Patriarchat der Vernunft — Matriarchat des Gefühls? Geschlechterdifferenzen im Denken und Fühlen (Patriarchy of Rationality — Matriarchy of Feeling? Gender Difference, Thinking and Feeling), Daedalus Verlag ISBN 3−89126−167−5 (D) 2001

Article as PDF with 58 images (download ca. 6,5 MB)

Presentation

2002 Published in ‘From Work to Word’ ed. by Doris Frohnapfel, Korridor Verlag, ISBN 3−9804354−8−2 (D)

2002 Slide reading, Europe Beyond Borders, City of Women, Ljubljana (Sl)

2003 Slide reading, Power and Responsibility, Bet Debora conference Berlin (D)

2003 Slide reading, Vienna Art Academy (A)

Publications & Press

2011 (9.5.) Presentation of the exhibition Jacob’s Ladder mentioned in the Veedel (Neighbourhood) Website: “Hochbunker Körnerstraße: Ein besonderer Ort für besondere Kunst” (The Above Ground Bunker in Koerner Street: A Special Place for Special Art), by Jürgen Brock-Mildenberger 4veedel.de/ Cologne (D)

Artist’s Writings & Publications

2002 Published in ‘From Work to Word’ ed. by Doris Frohnapfel, Korridor Verlag, ISBN 3−9804354−8−2 (D)