LULLABY

During the time my father was dying and I was caring for him I received an invitation for a group exhibition at Notagallery. The theme was Time is running out. For me this title was not an abstract motto but my immediate reality. The hospital bed as an installation is therefore much more than just a piece of work it is the direct transformation of my state of being during that time.

The entire object makes the cycle of life physically tangible by intertwining the architecture of the hospital bed with symbols of the beginning. A fabric canopy typically associated with a baby crib spans the hospital bed. At the foot of the bed hangs a urinal sealed with the nipple of a baby bottle containing a light. Here beginning and end physically merge. The absolute helplessness with which we start our lives is the same with which we often depart from it.

I wanted to make this state of powerlessness palpable.
There is a handle attached to a music box that turns incessantly upon itself while Chopin’s Funeral March plays on a continuous loop. To me this is the image of our reality: we do not always have control over our health and our lives no matter how much we struggle. The rotating handle depicts the exact moment where control ceases. It is about the inevitable and about eventually letting go when time no longer moves forward but simply ends. I was still able to show this work to my father at his bedside.
That moment remains within the work as the truly completed cycle.