As part of the exhibition Mirror | Mirror Kathrin Schlegel has developed a museal translation and interpretation of the public artwork There Are Worse Things You Could Be Accused of Than Being A Flower. The public artwork is located under a railway viaduct across the Eem close to the museum. A decade ago, Schlegel positioned a polished bronze sculpture in the shape of a Venetian chandelier there so as to transform the somewhat uncanny underpass into an entrance hall from the ‘old’ to the ‘new’ city. Inspired by the myth of Narcissus, the chandelier features withering daffodils rather than traditional roses. The translation to the museum space follows sun rays reflecting on the river that make the chandelier glisten from time to time. The artist has captured this unique interplay in a video which is being projected onto a chandelier from glass. This chandelier has been made in Murano and served as model for the bronze chandelier in public space. A glass plate on the floor reflects both the glass object and the fleeting video images. Every day a small amount of water is taken from the Eem and poured onto the glass plate. Once the water has dried up, circular stains appear, traces of what was and no longer is. Alluding to the story of Echo and Narcissus this work reflects on themes such as intangibility and transience. At the same time this composition of light and shadow, of being and appearance, poses questions about the relationship between ‘original’ and ‘copy’.
Echo of There Are Worse Things You Could Be Accused of Than Being A Flower