wrestlewithyourangel
2001
A white neon sign (124 x 15 cm)
Insurance price 3,000 Euros (Edition 5)
The logo refers to the expression 'wrestle with your conscience'; the word 'conscience' is however, replaced by 'angel', thereby creating a connection with the biblical Jacob, because he wrestled with an angel. The word displacement leads one further, to consider the problematic of Jacob's action; was it legitimate to fight for a blessing as the bible seems to suggest, or was this questionable behaviour? Since the Western world's moral code is based on the bible, Jacob's code of ethics might be seen to have spawned fatal consequences for future generations who, feeling legitimised by the notion 'with God on our side', achieved their goals by aggressive means. The viewer is likewise confronted with her/his own moral dilemmas.
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Ury has also created other artworks that might be considered visual poetry. Moving Message 1992, incorporates an LED sign displaying the words: you are why; Sonata in Sea 1999-2000 is a photo series combined with poetry and wrestlewithyourangel 2001, is a neon sign produced together with the neon sign neonazi 2001; the title of a double photo portrait lesser is me more or less 2003 plays on the name of the German Post-Impressionist Lesser Ury, as does the title of a further double portrait or else 2007, which refers to the German writer Else Ury. The title of a third photo-portrait Beelzebularin 2005 (in the Promised Land series) reveals itself to be an anagram of the biblical Bezalel Ben Uri. half dimensional - semi detached 2010, combines the first of the half dimensional poems with the photograph semi detached.
concrete – a collection of works (including poetry series)
femininity – femininiation 1984 & 2011
moving message 1992
Word-fore-play - Recipe for Love 1995
Sonata in Sea 1999-2000
wish 2000
wrestlewithyourangel 2001
neonazi 2001
Poker Poems 2003
elle la poésie 2003
lesser is me more or less 2003
Promised Land – a collection of works 2005
Mid Summer 2005
Un 2006
or else 2007
half dimensional poems 2009-2011
half dimensional - semi detached 2010
cement (befestigte Gedichte) 2011
on a mat appear 2011-
Lost Poems 2011
weißer neger (white nigger) 2011
informed 2011
concrete party 2011
oral call 2011
cross word 2011-2012
toned poems 2011-2012
two toned 2012
pommes 2012
taste of space 2012-2013
leeres archiv (empty archive) 2013
archive burn out 2011-2014
hero of your own saga 2013-2014
magical reality 2014-2015
