Dancing Mesalah
2000
(Tanzender Obelisk)
Assuan Granit
5,20 m

5. Internationales
Bildhauersymposium 
in Assuan - Ägypten
2000

The opportunity to work in Egypt provided me with a substantial 
insight into the past and modern history of the country. As this is 
the case for many highly evolved ancient cultures I found a struggle 
of opposites, the confrontation of majestic reign of the pharaonic 
Nile culture with the modern technology driven society striving to 
expand and develop.

It was my aim to capture such opposites in my sculpture. At closer 
inspection you will notice the crude cut of the original stone base 
giving rise to a tower that grows into precisely worked storeys, 
however, ending again in a rather rough top. The proportions are 
adopted from the human figure which gives the sculpture the 
expression of a dancing person. Doors and windows of the tower 
are cut following examples of hieroglyphes on ancient obeliscs, 
therefore creating associations with shrine doors of devine tombs. 
Ultimately the sculpture mirrows both joy and lightness expressed 
by the dancing movement and death and heaviness reflected by 
symbolic shrine doors and windows.

The Dancing Mesalah symbolises mankind's ongoing search for luck, 
joy of life and eternity but also stands tall as a reminder of death 
and transition. Perhaps the sculpture provides the answers to the 
long standing question whether the dream of paradise can only be 
realized through death. With this I leave the spectator to the 
challenge of reinforce the quest by dancing with the Mesalah and 
attempting to grasp a view through long closed windows of the past 
and within ourselves.