wrestlewithyourangel 2001

A white neon sign (124 x 15 cm)

Insur­ance price 3,000 Euros (Edition 5)

Jacob’s Ladder – a collec­tion of works:

The logo refers to the expres­sion ​‘wrestle with your conscience’; the word ​‘conscience’ is however, replaced by ​‘angel’, thereby creating a connec­tion with the biblical Jacob, because he wres­tled with an angel. The word displace­ment leads one further, to consider the prob­lem­atic of Jacob’s action; was it legit­i­mate to fight for a blessing as the bible seems to suggest, or was this ques­tion­able behav­iour? Since the Western world’s moral code is based on the bible, Jacob’s code of ethics might be seen to have spawned fatal conse­quences for future gener­a­tions who, feeling legit­imised by the notion ​‘with God on our side’, achieved their goals by aggres­sive means. The viewer is like­wise confronted with her/​his own moral dilemmas.

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Ury has also created other artworks that might be consid­ered visual poetry. Moving Message 1992, incor­po­rates an LED sign displaying the words: you are why; Sonata in Sea 1999 – 2000 is a photo series combined with poetry and wrestle­with­y­ourangel 2001, is a neon sign produced together with the neon sign neonazi 2001; the title of a double photo portrait lesser is me more or less 2003 plays on the name of the German Post-Impres­sionist Lesser Ury, as does the title of a further double portrait or else 2007, which refers to the German writer Else Ury. The title of a third photo-portrait Beelze­bu­larin 2005 (in the Promised Land series) reveals itself to be an anagram of the biblical Bezalel Ben Uri. half dimen­sional — semi detached 2010, combines the first of the half dimen­sional poems with the photo­graph semi detached.

concrete – a collec­tion of works (including poetry series)


Presen­ta­tion

2001 Termini Tech­nici, (group) Trini­tatis Church Cologne (D)
2002 Jacob’s Ladder (solo), Hochbunker Cologne-Ehren­feld (9th Nov. 2002 Cologne’s Long Museum’s Night) (D)

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)

Collec­tions

2011 wrestle­with­y­ourangel, 2001, a white neon sign (124 x 15 cm), in private collec­tion Eric Witschke, Cologne (D)

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