Tuesday, 1 March 2016
The programmatic title provides a theme that allows for a wide variety of interpretations. In staged images, the animal specimens, some of which are more than a hundred years old, are brought back to life. The photographers look at the various actors with affection, humour and subtlety. In combination with selected objects from the Museum of Cultural History, it was possible to create a number of elaborate arrangements that can certainly be seen as an homage to the hunting and kitchen still lifes of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The melancholy view of growth and decay, of the eternal cycle of "eat and be eaten" proves to be a beautiful illusion. In fact, most of the animals have been dead for a hundred years, but this is precisely why they have achieved museum-like immortality - artfully prepared with glass eyes, wire skeletons and sawdust.
In keeping with the theme, the women from the abbey kitchen were asked to photograph them. In a very mundane sense, they are the good spirits who work largely in secret, give structure to the day and at the same time provide culinary variety. The two artists have also enjoyed their culinary skills on many occasions. It was a very special pleasure for them to be able to immortalise the kitchen team in a good mood.
