Dat Rosa Miel Apibus 2009

Anselm Kiefer made this sculpture, Dat Rosa Miel Apibus, with lead books, metal, and what looks like toy planes. The whole thing perches on top of a concrete block. I can imagine him, in his studio, piling those lead books up and sticking those little toy planes every which way, maybe feeling like he’s building a tower of knowledge and destruction at the same time. The lead is heavy, right? It's dense. It makes me think about the weight of history, the heaviness of memory. The books are splayed open, but they're unreadable, like knowledge that's just out of reach, or maybe knowledge that's been corrupted. Then, those little planes buzzing all around, kind of cute, but also menacing. Kiefer’s often playing with these themes – history, memory, destruction, creation – and he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. The art of painting is also like a kind of conversation, an ongoing exchange of ideas, across time. Artists inspire one another’s creativity. Uncertainty allows for multiple interpretations.