 Abwurfstange, 1990 Alongside publications of experimental concrete and visual poetry, Konrad Balder Schäuffelen has been creating numerous language and book objects, audiovisual installations, photographs and sculptures since the 1960s. His work, Abwurfstange, displays shed deer antlers embellished with a small golden cross. In the spring, a process of decay at the point of the bony nodule on the stag's forehead loosens the antlers and they finally fall to the ground. Schäuffelen connect here to the legend of St. Eustace, who was one of the Roman emperor Trajan's generals and belongs to the Fourteen Holy Helpers. One day a stag with a cross among its antlers appeared to him, at which Eustace converted to Christianity. When Trajan's successor Hadrian demanded he make sacrifices to the Roman gods, he refused and died as a martyr. Konrad Balder Schäuffelen, * 1929 in Ulm (D), lives and works in Munich (D)  Konrad Balder Schäuffelen, Abwurfstange, 1990deer antler, gold 80 x 40 x 40 cm courtesy Konrad Balder Schäuffelen, Müchen photo: Jean-Marie Bottequin
|