wachsende Hand 21 (2021) Sculpture by Andimar

The growing hand 2021 This fork of a branch is a find that I found on a walk last autumn. With such natural forms I am always reminded of the theme of metamorphoses that runs through almost all of my works, be it literary, allegorical or metaphorical. Meat becomes wood and wood becomes meat. “Everything changes, nothing passes. Our spirit wanders, comes here from there, from here there, and it seizes this and that limb, passes from animals into human bodies and back into animals, and it never perishes. How the pliable wax forms into new structures, so it does not stay as it was, does not keep the same shape, and but the same remains, so I teach, the soul is always the same, but it always wanders into new shapes. “Ovid from the Metamorphoses. This book has not lost any of its importance, even today, transformation plays a central theme in our society. Many try to adapt their exterior to their interior be it through excessive exercise, tattoos, body modification or even surgery, because their soul is not in harmony with their body. People are physically born with the wrong gender and, as they grow up, undergo a physical metamorphosis to the opposite sex, which usually also has a surgical aspect. Ovid describes various transformations that can be many things, redemption, punishment, reward or a sign, but the new shape always reflects the nature of the transformed, often more clearly than before. It just changes the shape. When I come across certain branch shapes while walking, during the time when the trees are being pruned, I always have the stories in my head that end with a transformation into a tree or bush and can often recognize these original shapes that are hidden in the wood. So I just have to remove the superfluous material and support the shapes it contains. In the trees I see Daphne who becomes a laurel to protect against Apollo, Myrra who becomes a tree as a punishment for seducing her father or Philimon and Baucis who experience the transformation as a reward.

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