Installation
metal, wood, plastic, fabric, glass, mirror foil, paper, dissected animal head, electric cables, lightbulb, lacquer
‘Whenever I’m in Cologne I go to the cathedral there several times a day because I find it absolutely magnificent inside. I’ve even referred to it before as my “atelier.” Wolfgang Tillmans did a photo series there with me. And there’s the famous masonry shop there. […] And that’s where I discovered the gargoyles, which are normally on the outside of the cathedral. They were being restored. I saw their wide-open mouths, their terrible faces – they’re total figments of the imagination. They’re meant to protect the building; the rain water and filth flow from their mouths, away from the church, which is important for the upkeep of the building. I thought to myself that it would be good to take them to London. I tried to convince the cathedral’s master builder of the idea, but he wouldn’t have any of it. […] I think they would have fit in well in London because there’s a certain architecturally similar “heaviness” – both in London itself, in the architecture of the city, and in the churches. For me, the gargoyles of Cologne were simply “English.” So […] I created my own gargoyles.’