Rebecca Horn, Ballet of the Woodpeckers 1986
© DACS, 2002
Display caption
This work was originally constructed for the entrance hall of a theatre, situated within a psychiatric clinic in Vienna. It was the first time in the clinic's history that patients and visitors could meet, touching each other through their mirrored images. Small hammers peck against the mirrors in constantly changing rhythms. They are like birds discovering their own image as they fly towards their reflections. One of the woodpecker machines cuts into a bundle of charcoal. The dust falls to the ground, with a mound settling on an egg suspended just above the floor… (read more)
September 2004
Other works of art you may be interested in
Find similar artworks
Artist
Rebecca Horn
(42)
Category
Installation
(641)
Decade
1980-9
(2,581)
Style or ‘-ism’
20th century post-1945
(3,604)
Kinetic Art
(26)
Subject
nature
(37,449)
animals: birds
(1,010)
woodpecker
(4)
natural phenomena
(1,949)
reflection
(590)
objects
(12,243)
furnishings
(1,928)
mirror
(147)
society
(14,246)
health and welfare
(133)
psychiatry
(2)
symbols & personifications
(4,830)
birth to death
(96)