Kathrin Schlegel is a German installation and visual artist creating research-based, site-specific, and conceptual works exhibited internationally. Her projects explore spatial perception, human experience, and site-specific narratives.
   Kathrin Schlegel
Uncertain Ends I
2011, contemporary Vanitas installation, 999 fragrant white lilies, metal construction, wiring, floral foam, plant food, water fogging system, piping. C-Space, Beijing, China; September 24 - October 24, 2011. This work was made possible with the generous support of the Mondriaan Fund and C-Space, Beijing.

For C-Space in Beijing Kathrin Schlegel conceived a site-specific work investigating the multiple meanings that flowers have in different cultures, the result being a room-filling installation Uncertain Ends I, exhibiting 999 white fragrant lilies floating under the ceiling. In Chinese numerology the number 9 refers to all good things that last. According to a Chinese proverb the lily (百合, bǎi hé) helps a person to forget all troubles and the lily symbolizes eternal love. In traditional Christian floral iconography the lily symbolizes purity associated with the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. The floating installation also calls to mind the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. By combining scent, water mist and symbolically charged elements in an empty, brightly lit white room, the space becomes a meta-space, a cloud of unbearable beauty. As a contemporary Vanitas installation, the work reflects on the site- and context-specific perception of ephemeral phenomena, beauty, transience and their interplay. Impermanence is one of the essential doctrines and one of the three marks of existence in Buddhist philosophy. The installation was in a constant state of flux, a conversion of the endless cycle of ascent and decline into a medium.


__________
Uncertain Ends I

Updated 05.01.26