Gor Chahal :
Hinter dem Horizont

The sculpture titled Beyond the Horizon was created by the sculptor Gor Chahal for the park of Melk Abbey, and is situated in a clearing between bushes. The sculpture bears the same title as the nine-part temporary photographic installation by the artist in the abbey's church. In both locations different things are shown as if they were lying behind an imaginary horizon to suggest a reality beyond empirical experience to the viewer, as a metaphor. The artist achieves this by using a special lens on the camera that reverses the perspective view in a manner familiar from medieval depictions. For the sculpture in the park Gor Chahal photographed four key objects from the abbey's museum using this lens: a 15th century travel breviary, an 11th century portable altar, the chalice from which, according to legend, St. Benedict should have drunk poisoned wine, and a hand as a metaphor for the indication of direction and love. The photographs were dyed with four key colours from the abbey museum spaces, cut into strips and then each pressed onto wooden posts set at an angle.
The result is that the viewer has to be moving to see the images. Only when one has been around the 2.5 metre tall and 3.4 metre long sculpture do the strips of image flow together to provide the four views.
(Cornelia Offergeld)