Untitled (Doubting Thomas), 2024
Cast by the Gipsformerei of Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, after the ivory relief ‚Doubting Thomas’ by an unknown artist, late 10th century, from the Skulpturensammlung of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, moulded in the 1950s, plaster, permanent marker
23.5 x 9.8 cm
Another kinetic sculpture is Incredulity (Car window), in which a car window performs its only possible gesture, moving up and down. Here, however, it cannot open or close an associated body. Unleashed from the system, it explores its surroundings, but in so doing it seems fragile and exposed to the void. The gesture is reminiscent of the well-known motif of ‘Doubting Thomas’ in Christian art, which also appears in the exhibition in the form of a plaster cast of an ivory relief from the 10th century. In it, Jesus is at the centre of the scene, showing his stigmata; below him, Thomas, pricking the wound with his index finger. Although the apostle overcomes his crisis of faith in the scene, a crack remains forever: for Christianity, doubting is an incurable wound, at least as long as faith and reason are diametrically opposed.
Text by Philipp Lange
Thanks Philipp Lange and Gipsformerei of Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Untitled (Doubting Thomas), was part of Friedrich Andreoni's solo show “Remember me when you enter your Kingdom” at Galerie Met for the Berlin Art Week, curated by Philipp Lange.
