For the exhibition ACHSENVERSCHIEBUNG, March 2022 in the gallery Fabra Ars/ Magdeburg (Germany)
Dana Meyer’s sculptures are made of steel and if we want them to be, they are alive. It is the viewer’s task to bring them to life – our mind games make them breathe, move, exist. There is a crocodile baring its teeth, here you can hear the grunting of pigs, and then there is someone who, under the protection of a mask, is indulging in his thoughts.
We see the last hammer blows and feel the final welds of the metal: it is the traces of the artist’s intuitive working process that create the authenticity of the sculptures. The metal is modular, it takes an active part. The material is unruly and has its limits – just like mankind.
The figures are rich in detail without being overloaded. They are uniquely perfect without being flawless. We come across preserved insects that we recognise and yet cannot know: They move between reality and invention. Meyer’s works take us to the border of anonymity and personal intimacy: there is a horse and a goose, Hans and Hannelore, and an unknown person who hides his face behind a mask. We recognise and misjudge ourselves at the same time – an impulsive area between being and wanting. It is about the distance to ourselves, to our character traits, mistakes, sins.
The sculptures bear witness to passion: the spirit of experimentation, the collector’s love, the desire to hold on. With Meyer’s art, we expand the boundaries of identity and open up unimagined perspectives. We find ourselves on an expedition to ourselves and experience imaginative creations forged into reality.
The artist’s works are a mental challenge, an intuitive questioning of the transcendence between animal and human.
In this debauched process of discovery, we shift perspective and ask ourselves, “Are we more?”.
Dana Meyer’s art is an ode to passion, to the desire for adventure, and above all to being (more).
