TRIPTYCH 2015 - 2016

HOPE IS DEAD - LONG LIVE HOPE !

Oil on canvas / wood - 300 x 200 cm

Hope ist dead - long live Hope - 300 x 200 cm (inside)

According to old myths, Pandora’s box was opened a second time to let Hope escape into the world, since only she had remained inside. Zeus held her captive until the end to send her out against the earth as his finishing move.

Since then, humankind is confronted with its greatest enemy, itself – an eternal legacy of the Fall of Man. Souls are bedeviled by demagogues and perfidy, and their faith paired with hopelessness crushes their courage.

Where there is doubt, humankind will be afflicted with hope – and humankind will entrust its destiny to hope, no matter how futile. As does a small part of this community of flesh who gathers to encircle hope. Some of them become resigned, and others follow war’s trail.

All around us, life disintegrates into its countless facets, glitter and glamour are covered by ash, all lives become in themselves interchangeable – no more than broken scaffolds devoted to false ideologies.

Fanatics holds the hands of their lovers Violence and Laws who stink to the high heavens. But Hope is unable to send all these circumstances to the Hereafter. Humankind limits itself to their basest instinct, the instinct of survival.

Those who sow storms of hatred shall soon harvest wars because all of humankind is unified by one beloved tradition – the urge to kill one another. For the living it is a tragedy and for the Gods a very special spectacle.

And so narrow-mindedness wafts like pestilent clouds over the country to infect ever so many brains. Hatred seeps into the earth and enlivens hostile disputes with their sanctimonious drivel. Feelings start to run high and soon boil over into all corners and alleys.

Finally, the inevitable happens: Hope is not the wondrous panacea we take it to be, our faith is her heavy burden, a suffering she can bear no more...

Hope is dead – long live Hope !

Antje Horn