Breaking a wall-nut
The installation Hammering a Wall-nut revolves around the reproduction of a 16th-century engraving by the Italian Andrea Alciato (1492-1550), a jurist and writer best known for his work Emblemata, a collection of allegories in Latin verse on moral subjects. The artist puts the engraving — which depicts two men striking a walnut tree to collect its nuts — in dialogue with proverbs, customs, and symbols that have associated walnuts with femininity since antiquity. According to one proverb, “the more you strike the walnut tree, the more fertile it becomes. “
Photo: Andreas Körner/ifa Gallery Stuttgart