Florian Claar

2018

Mixed Media Installation

 

OAG / Tokyo / Japan

This work began with a curious, playful thought: the possibility of a meeting between Frankenstein's creature and the young Gustav Mahler. It draws on ideas of 19th- and 20th-century post-romanticism and Gothic themes found in both Mary Shelley's book and Mahler's music. Among other things, the creature is described several times in the book as a nature-loving, keen observer of atmospheric landscapes, much as Mahler was. The installation, centered on a model of the wooden version of Vessel II, uses elements and landscapes from both worlds and also includes allusions to John Carpenter's 1982 film The Thing, hinting at the possibility that the creature may have survived even into the present.