In Anselment's installation Cast Lead, as the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip around New Year’s Eve of 2008 was called, Anselment examines the grotesque names of military offensives. Here the German tradition of “casting lead” on New Year’s Eve – dripping molten lead into water and interpreting the subsequent lead forms as signs of the future - was subjected to a brutal act of appropriation through military language and thereby corrupted. In Anselment’s installation, the New Year’s Eve questioning of the future includes not only the typical amorphous lead forms but also figures of soldiers and tanks, thereby exposing the connections between romantic icons and war. An intelligent, double-edged game.
Dr. Ralf F. Hartmann / Magdala Perpinyà
Translated by Tom Lampert