Swastikas and Stars

10 photographs sealed under plex­i­glass and mounted (63cm x 94.5cm), Deià, Mallorca, no. 3 – 10 1996, no. 1 – 2 1999

Insur­ance value 2,000 Euros

Jacob’s Ladder – a collec­tion of works:

• Roman Svastika
• Tantric Snakes and Ladders
• Jacob’s Ladder – a Cyber­sexual Parable
• Franco and Elke J.
• Fashion Victim
• Barbie and Klaus
• Jacob’s Ladder
• Swastikas and Stars
• wrestle­with­y­ourangel
• neonazi
• Blind Spot
• Red Hot Pokers
• Tran­scending the Ladder
• Jack the Ladder

These photographs are mainly of road­work signs that display graf­fiti of swastikas and Stars of David, signi­fiers that are loaded with symbol­ical weight. The country lane, on which the street signs have been photographed, is being widened. In Mallorca, where much of the rural land­scape is being culti­vated as a building site for largely German purchasers, feel­ings run high among the natural inhab­i­tants. Mallorca is still recov­ering from the repres­sions of a fascist dicta­tor­ship that ended only a quarter of a century ago; under Franco even the Catalan language was forbidden. Now the Mallorquin people are trying to cope with a tourist industry that has taken on colo­nial propor­tions. Although the trade guar­an­tees incoming wealth, the foreign interest is for the Balearic loca­tion, not for the culture. Given this context, the meaning of the graf­fiti becomes compli­cated and less easy to encode.

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Presen­ta­tion

2002 Jacob’s Ladder (solo), Hochbunker Cologne-Ehren­feld (9^th Nov. 2002 Cologne’s Long Museum’s Night) (D)

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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)